Asian shares ease, taking cue from Wall Street, oil slips

Asian shares eased on Wednesday following modest losses on Wall Street, but were still on track for a monthly rise as investors waited to see if upcoming job data could prod the Federal Reserve into raising interest rates as soon as September. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1 percent as traders awaited Friday's job report, but looked set for a near 2 percent gain in August. Japan's Nikkei stock index added 0.9 percent, poised to rise 1.8 percent for the mon