GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks steady after oil surge lifts Wall Street

* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* MSCI Asia-Pacific index steady, Nikkei dips 0.1%
* Wall St rises after Middle East tanker attacks boosts oil
* Caution seen prevailing ahead of Fed's meeting next week

By Shinichi Saoshiro
TOKYO, June 14 (Reuters) - Asian stocks held their ground on
Friday after Wall Street gained on a surge in oil prices as
attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman stoked U.S.-Iran tensions
and raised concerns over supply flows through one of the world's
main sea lanes.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS was little changed.
Australian stocks .AXJO edged up 0.05% while Japan's
Nikkei .N225 dipped 0.1%.
U.S. stocks rose on Thursday after two days of declines,
with energy shares rebounding on the back of crude oil's surge.
.N
Wall Street shares have had a strong run in June on hopes
the Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy soon to counter a
slowing global economy due to the escalating trade war with
China. The S&P 500 .SPX index is up about 5% so far for the
month.
But equity market gains were limited ahead of the Fed's June
18-19 meeting, which will give investors an opportunity to see
if the Fed's monetary policy stance is in sync with market
expectations for a near-term rate cut.
"There is a large degree of uncertainty going into next
week's FOMC (Federal Reserve Open Committee) meeting as market
reaction will differ significantly depending on whether the Fed
hints toward easing policy," said Shusuke Yamada, chief Japan FX
and equity strategist at Bank Of America Merrill Lynch.
"A wait-and-see mood is likely to begin prevailing in the
markets ahead of the FOMC."
In commodities, Brent crude futures LCOc1 slipped 0.29% to
$61.13 per barrel after rallying 2.3% the previous day.
Brent surged on Thursday after two oil tankers were attacked
in the Gulf of Oman, one Norwegian-owned and the other
Japanese-owned.
The United States has blamed Iran for the assaults. But U.S.
and European security officials as well as regional analysts
left open the possibility that Iranian proxies, or someone else
entirely, might have been responsible. U.S. crude CLc1 slipped 0.86% to $51.83 per barrel after
rising more than 2 percent on Thursday.
The dollar index .DXY against a basket of six major
currencies was little changed at 96.998 after ending the
previous day nearly flat, with caution ahead of the next week's
Fed meeting keeping the greenback in a tight range.
The euro was steady at $1.1281 EUR= while the greenback
dipped 0.1% to 108.295 yen JPY= .
The Australian dollar AUD=D4 was a touch lower at $0.6914,
still shaky after the previous day's losses. The Aussie had
slipped to a two-week trough of $0.6901 on Thursday after soft
domestic labour data added to expectations of a rate cut by the
Reserve Bank of Australia.

(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)