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By Tom Miles
HONG KONG, April 25 (Reuters) - A bounce in the U.S. dollar
lifted Asian stock markets on Friday and sent bond prices
tumbling, while crude oil sank further from its recent record
close to $120 barrel.
Data on Thursday showing signs of resilience in the U.S.
labour market and weak German business sentiment boosted the
dollar, which held its gains in early Asian trade.
Signs of robustness in the dollar and the U.S. economy are
good news for Asia's exporters, who count on strong demand for
their products, and for investors, who have been nervously
watching for any fresh omens of the U.S. economy slowing
further.
With the dollar holding its ground at $1.5680 against the
euro <EUR=> and 104.30 yen <JPY=>, Asian equity investors took
over where Wall Street left off on Thursday, buying into
optimism that the worst may be over for beaten-down U.S banks.
Japan's Nikkei average <> rose 2 percent by 0237 GMT,
while MSCI's index of stocks across the rest of Asia
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> was up 0.2 percent. Australia and New Zealand
were absent, observing the ANZAC Day holiday.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> finished 0.7
percent higher on Thursday, topping 12,900 for the first time
since January, while the Nasdaq Composite Index <> gained
1 percent to achieve its highest close in three months.
U.S. investors took heart from Merrill Lynch & Co <MER.N>
leaving its dividend unchanged, Credit Suisse <CSGN.VX> cutting
its exposure to risk and Travelers Cos Inc <TRV.N>, one of the
largest U.S. property insurers, raising its profit forecast.
Asia added to the cheer with Samsung Electronics
<005930.KS>, the world's top maker of memory chips used in
consumer electronics up 4.2 percent after reporting a 37
percent rise in quarterly profit as strong sales and margins in
flat screens and mobile phones outweighed weakness in chips.
[]
"Samsung's numbers just came out astoundingly good. Its
profits from handset and LCD divisions were very impressive,"
said Suh Do-won, an analyst at Hanwha Securities.
The bullishness in stocks was matched by a retreat in crude
oil <CLc1>, which had risen to a record close to $120 a barrel
on Tuesday, driven partly by the dollar's weakness.
Crude dropped as far as to $115.44 before recovering to
$115.64, 42 cents down on the day. But spot gold <XAU=>, which
often tracks movements in oil, ticked up more than $2 to
$887.75/8.75 an ounce.
With investors drawing cash to buy shares, Japanese
government bond futures tumbled. June 10-year futures <2JGBv1>
skidded to a four-month low and the two-year yield
<JP2YTN=JBTC> hit a six-month peak.
Prices suffered a double hit as annual inflation hit a
decade high of 1.2 percent in March, spurred by higher energy
and material costs, raising expectations of an eventual
interest rate hike.
(Additional reporting by Rika Otsuka in TOKYO, Park Jung-youn
in SEOUL; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
