* Investors cautious ahead of U.S. earnings releases
* Dollar weakens vs yen, hits Japanese exporters
* Commodity prices up on weak dollar, help resource shares
* Expected JAL bankruptcy has little impact on Nikkei
By Jun Ebias
HONG KONG, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Asian stocks slipped on
Tuesday on caution ahead of the earnings season in the United
States, while the U.S. dollar weakened against the yen,
dragging Japanese exporters down.
The dollar's dip helped give a boost to oil and commodity
prices and helped to underpin shares of resource companies.
Investors were cautious as U.S. financial markets reopen
after a holiday and face a slew of key earnings reports due
this week from heavyweight stocks, including Bank of America
<BAC.N>, Citigroup <C.N>, IBM <IBM.N> General Electric <GE.N>
and Google <GOOG.O>.
"Investors need to be careful ahead of earnings reports.
It's been the case so far that companies that report results
tend to face profit-taking as stocks had gained sharply by
already factoring in solid figures," said Yutaka Miura, a
senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> eased 0.4 percent, with technology shares the
biggest drag by sector.
The Thomson Reuters index of regional shares <.TRXFLDAXPU>
pulled back 0.3 percent.
Stronger-than-expected results last week from tech
bellwether Intel Corp <INTC.O> failed to excite investors,
while steep loan losses reported by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
<JPM.N> rattled investors on worries that U.S. consumers are
still struggling under the weight of heavy debts.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei average <> dipped 0.12
percent after dropping 1.2 percent on Monday, pulling back from
a 15-month high hit last week. Honda Motor Co <7267.T> was 1.2
percent lower and Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> slipped 1.1
percent.
An expected bankruptcy filing by Japan Airlines <9205.T>
had little market impact, with its shares already having
plunged to just 4 yen.
The dollar <JPY=> fell 0.2 percent to 90.51 <JPY=> and hit
a four-week low, while the euro fell to a four-month low
against the pound <EURGBP=D4> as Greece's fiscal woes continued
to take a toll on the common currency.
At a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday,
Greece received the group's backing to tackle its debt
troubles, even as they pressed the country to do more on its
own. []
Greece's ballooning budget deficit and debt of more than
120 percent of GDP has triggered downgrades by debt rating
agencies and hurt the euro <EUR=> in the past few months.
The pound also got a boost from reports that U.S.-based
Kraft Foods <KFT.N> and Britain's Cadbury Plc <CBRY.L> were
arranging a $19 billion deal to create the world's largest
confectionary group. []
But the Australian dollar <AUD=D4> lost ground after
China's central bank boosted the yield in an auction of
one-year bills more than expected, raising more worries that
authorities are trying to slow the country's robust recovery.
Metal and oil prices rose on a weaker dollar.
Palladium hit a fresh 18-month peak, spurred by the launch
of an exchange-traded fund backed by the metal earlier this
month, while gold <XAU=> inched up $5 to $1,137.50. Oil <CLc1>
extended gains scored on Monday, edging up 25 cents a barrel to
$78.25.
In the bond market, Japanese government bonds inched down
on caution ahead of an auction of five-year debts worth 2.4
trillion yen ($26.4 billion) later in the day. Ten-year JGB
futures <2JGBv1> edged up 0.04 point to 139.32.
(Additional reporting by Aiko Hayashi; Editing by Kazunori
Takada)
