* MSCI Asia ex-Japan +0.2%, touches 14-week highs
* S&P 500, Nasdaq post record closing highs Friday
* U.S. and China say they have made progress in trade talks
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Andrew Galbraith
SHANGHAI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Asian shares rose to 14-week
highs on Monday as growing optimism over U.S.-China trade talks
and upbeat U.S. job data boosted global investors' appetite for
riskier assets.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.2% in early trade, having earlier
touched its highest level since July 29.
Australian shares .AXJO were up 0.2% and Seoul's Kospi
.KS11 added 0.9%. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday.
The United States and China both said on Friday that they
had made progress in talks aimed at defusing their protracted
16-month-long trade war, and U.S. officials said a deal could be
signed this month. But in a morning note, analysts at National Australia Bank
sounded a note of caution.
"As much as the U.S.-China trade updates continue to point
to a Phase 1 deal looking like a certainty, the contentious
issues on whether the U.S. will cancel the planned December
tariffs and remove some of the current tariffs in line with
China's demands remains an unknown and if the issue is not
resolved then a deal could easily collapse," they said.
In comments on Friday, White House economic adviser Larry
Kudlow said tariffs set to kick in on Dec. 15, which would cover
Chinese imports such as laptops, toys and electronics, would
remain on the table, and the decision whether to cancel them
would be made by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Any lingering uncertainty over the outlook for trade talks
was not enough to keep the S&P 500 .SPX from gaining 0.97% and
the Nasdaq rising 1.13% to fresh record closing highs on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 1.11%.
On Monday, U.S. S&P 500 e-mini stock futures ESc1 , were up
0.15% at 3,067.8.
U.S. job growth slowed less than expected in October and
hiring in the prior two months was stronger than previously
estimated, data from the Labor Department showed on Friday.
Those numbers followed a private survey of manufacturers in
China that showed better-than-expected factory activity in
October. Oil prices, which had surged on hopes for a U.S.-China trade
deal, were a shade lower on Monday. Global benchmark Brent crude
LCOc1 was off 0.10% at $61.63 per barrel and U.S. West Texas
Intermediate crude CLc1 was 0.11% lower at $56.14.
In the currency market, the dollar was up 0.04% against the
yen to 108.21 JPY= , and the euro was unchanged, buying
$1.1165.
The dollar index .DXY , which tracks the greenback against
a basket of six major rivals, was down by a hair at 97.215.
Gold was slightly lower as investors moved into riskier
assets. Spot gold XAU= was trading at $1,512.42 per ounce,
down 0.07%. GOL/