Asian stocks, led by exporters such as Sony, chased a Wall Street rally and the dollar held near multi-week highs on Wednesday after strong U.S. consumer confidence data eased fears of a slowdown in the largest economy. Oil held near a 21-year high ahead of U.S. data on fuel stockpiles later in the day. Gold was steady around $388 an ounce, while Japanese government bond prices fell, hit by losses in U.S. Treasuries. Most Asian stock indexes climbed, but investors were wary ahead of earnings later in the day from Japan's Sony Corp. <6758.T>, Canon Inc. <7751.T>, Sharp Corp. <6753.T> and Advantest Corp. <6857.T>. United Microelectronics Corp. <2303.TW> reports in Taiwan. Tokyo Electron Ltd. <8035.T>, the world's second-largest maker of chip equipment, rose 4 percent. But UFJ Holdings Inc. <8307.T> tumbled 5.2 percent after a court on Tuesday ordered the Japanese bank to suspend the sale of its trust bank unit, a potential blow to the ailing group's planned merger with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. <8306.T>. MTFG dropped 1 percent.
Japan's Nikkei stock average <.N225> had climbed 1.3 percent by midday to 11,170.50 after hitting an eight-week closing low on Tuesday. The motoring sub-index <.ITEQP.T> rose 1.5 percent. "Today's rebound simply followed after the turnaround in U.S. stocks," said Masaaki Higashida, a deputy general manager at Nomura Securities. "But jitters remain, with investors asking if the strength of the U.S. economy and the pace of profit growth there next year will be as strong as this year's. The same question has been raised on Japan as well." MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan had risen 0.3 percent by 0220 GMT. Its tech component <.MSCIAPJIT> climbed 1.2 percent, edging away from one-year lows. Shares rose 0.9 percent in South Korea <.KS11> and between 0.1 percent and 0.4 percent in Hong Kong <.HSI>, Taiwan <.TWII> and Australia <.AXJO>, but gains were capped by the jitters over earnings reports.
DOLLAR CHEERS DATA
The dollar traded around 111.05 yen , versus 110.93 in late U.S. trade, just 0.1 percent off a six-week high of 111.19 yen touched in New York trade. The euro was little changed at $1.2063 , not far from a five-week low of $1.2035 hit in New York. U.S. consumer confidence surged to a two-year high this month as companies hired more workers, a report from a private forecasting group showed on Tuesday, beating market forecasts. The Conference Board report indicated the economy may be regaining speed after a soft patch in June and added to upbeat comments from Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan last week. Wall Street rallied on the data, helped by higher earnings at Verizon Communications Inc. . The tech-heavy Nasdaq <.IXIC> rose 1.6 percent and the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> climbed 1.2 percent. Asian shares followed suit. Toyota Motor Corp. <7203.T> rose 1.6 percent, consumer electronics giant Sony jumped 2.1 percent and Sharp, the world's largest maker of liquid crystal display TVs, rose 1.4 percent. Shares in Taiwan's UMC, the world's second-largest contract chipmaker, rose 1.4 percent ahead of its results. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. <005930.KS>, the world's largest memory chip maker, climbed 1.7 percent in South Korea. Weighing on Hong Kong shares, Sinopec Corp. <0386.HK> fell more than 3 percent on news that ExxonMobil was considering selling its 19 percent stake in the firm. U.S. indicators are being closely scrutinised by the markets to gauge the likely course of the economic recovery later in the year and the pace of interest rate rises. June durable goods orders data is due on Wednesday and GDP growth figures are set for Friday. Japanese government bond prices fell, pushing the yield on the benchmark 261st 10-year cash bond <0#JPTSY=JBTC> up two basis points to 1.855 percent, its highest since July 1. Oil slipped 10 cents to $41.74 a barrel after rising as high as $42.22 in U.S. trade, just 23 cents below 21-year highs set in June. Gold edged up to $388.00 an ounce from $386.80 in New York.///www.reuters.com