Asian shares slip in holiday-thinned trade, focus turns to U.S. data

Asian shares struggled on Thursday after a lacklustre performance on Wall Street, with investors looking to U.S. economic data later in the day for potential catalysts even as markets started winding down ahead of the holidays. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan erased early modest gains and slipped 0.3 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index was down 0.2 percent. U.S. stocks, which have been on a tear since the Nov. 8 election on bets that the incoming administration o