Shares jittery in Asia as metals gyrate, earnings

Asian share markets mostly followed Wall Street futures lower on Monday as chaotic trading in silver made for a nervous start to a week that is packed with corporate earnings, central bank meetings and major economic data.



Silver lost another 5% at one stage, as Friday's 30% plunge squeezed leveraged positions in what had become a very crowded trade.



Dealers also pointed to a halt in trading of the UBS SDIC silver futures fund in China as one cause of the rout.



Oil prices also fell by almost 3% as President Donald Trump said over the weekend Iran was "seriously talking" ⁠with Washington, perhaps lessening the risk of a U.S. military strike on the country.



The jitters saw MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ease 0.7%, with South Korea down 1.0%.



Japan's Nikkei was a rare gainer, adding 0.7% as opinion polls suggested Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party was likely to score a landslide victory in next week's lower house election.