* Asian stock markets : https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* Asian stocks gain, Nikkei at one-year high
* Tesla shares jump 21%, Microsoft gains too
* Investors ignore earnings miss from Caterpiller, Boeing
* Brexit developments still in focus
By Swati Pandey
SYDNEY, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Asian shares pulled ahead on
Thursday with corporate earnings buffeting trading as investors
remained anxious about the business impact of the Sino-U.S.
trade war while Brexit uncertainties kept overall sentiment in
check.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.2% with Japan's Nikkei .N225 up 0.5% at
a one-year high. Australian shares .AXJO climbed 0.5% while
South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 inched 0.4% higher.
South Korea earlier reported third quarter growth slightly
below expectations, though exports showed signs of recovery,
while a private survey showed Japanese factory activity shrank
at the fastest pace in over three years in October, hurt by
slowing global demand and trade
frictions. On Wall Street overnight, the Dow .DJI and the Nasdaq
.IXIC added 0.2% each while the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.3%.
Telsa TSLA.O shares jumped 21% in after-hours trading
following a surprise third quarter profit.
Microsoft MSFT.O also posted forecast-beating profit and
revenue numbers after the closing bell though the outlook was
darkened by slower-than-expected take-up of its Azure cloud
services.
Earlier, shares of U.S. industrial bellwethers Boeing Co
BA.N and Caterpillar Inc CAT.N ended about 1% higher each
despite big earnings misses. RBC Capital Markets' chief economist Tom Porcelli pointed to
consistently alarming headlines since the first quarter of 2018
suggesting poor Caterpillar earnings meant a recession was round
the corner, though that has yet to transpire.
"We have been down this road before with CAT," Porcelli said
in a note titled 'Still Waiting For Recession.'
"If you keep saying a recession is here, it is a
mathematical certainty that at some point you will be right," he
wrote. "Maybe try again after CAT's next quarterly earnings
report."
So far, results from about 125 of the S&P500 companies are
out with analysts expecting earnings to have declined 2.9%
year-over-year, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Risk appetite was also aided by a ceasefire in northern
Syria which resulted in the lifting of U.S. sanctions against
Turkey. Later in the day, European and U.S. manufacturing numbers
are due while the European Central Bank meets, with no change to
policy expected at President Mario Draghi's last meeting. Draghi
will be replaced by Christine Lagarde.
Activity in the currency market was rather muted.
Sterling GBP= paused at $1.2918 after rising 0.3% on
Wednesday with Brexit developments in focus.
Britain appears closer than ever to resolving its 3-1/2-year
Brexit conundrum but there are still hurdles to clear.
EU member states on Wednesday delayed a decision on whether
to grant Britain a three-month Brexit extension. Prime Minister
Boris Johnson said if the deadline is deferred to the end of
January, he would call an election.
"The Brexit battle looks like it will drag on," economists
at ANZ wrote in a note.
"The UK government will not meet its current timetable of
leaving the EU on 31 October, and an extension appears likely.
In the meantime, Brexit uncertainty will keep weighing on UK
business investment and activity."
The single currency EUR=D3 was flat at $1.1135. The
Japanese yen JPY= was a shade higher at 108.62 per dollar
while the Australian dollar AUD=D3 was barely changed at
$0.6852.
That left the dollar index .DXY mostly unchanged at 97.461
against a basket of six major currencies.
In commodity markets, U.S. crude CLcv1 eased 30 cents to
$55.67 while Brent LCOcv1 slipped 28 cents to $60.89.
Gold XAU= was treading water at $1,492.5 an ounce.
Asia stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
Asia-Pacific valuations https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dr2BQA
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(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)