* MSCI Asia ex-Japan +1%, highest since July 25
* S&P 500, Nasdaq post record closing highs Friday
* U.S. and China say they have made progress in trade talks
* Japan markets closed for holiday
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Andrew Galbraith
SHANGHAI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Asian shares surged to more than
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 jumped 1%, touching its highest level since July
Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI led gains in the region, rising
1.4%, and Seoul's Kospi .KS11 added 1.3%. In mainland China,
blue chips .CSI300 were up 0.8%, and Australian shares .AXJO
were 0.3% higher.
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
0.2% 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. Rob Carnell, Asia-Pacific chief economist at ING in
Singapore, said some market optimism was "probably justified" in
the wake of the positive data.
"Everybody had been looking for a much worse number and it
didn't materialise, so some bounce from that was entirely
plausible and reasonable."
But he added that continued uncertainty over trade talks and
less room for monetary easing by global central banks made for a
murky outlook.
"It's difficult to see why you wouldn't be at least
thinking, there is a 'good profit-taking opportunity right now'
and positioning for a slightly worse outcome," he said.
While cash treasuries were not trading due to the Japanese
market holiday, U.S. 10-year Treasury futures TYc1 were down
0.06% amid the broadly bullish market mood.
The implied yield on the 10-year Treasury futures contract
expiring in December TYZ9 was 1.63%.
Oil prices, which had surged on hopes for a U.S.-China trade
deal, pulled back Monday. Global benchmark Brent crude LCOc1
was off 0.6% at $61.35 per barrel and U.S. West Texas
Intermediate crude CLc1 was 0.4% lower at $55.96.
In the currency market, the dollar was up 0.03% against the
yen to 108.20 JPY= , and the euro was up 0.04% to buy $1.1170.
The dollar index .DXY , which tracks the greenback against
a basket of six major rivals, was down 0.06% at 97.183.
Those small moves contrasted with a 1.3% jump in the South
African rand ZAR= against the dollar. The currency rallied on
relief that Moody's maintained South Africa's investment-grade
rating on Friday, though the agency cut its outlook on the
rating to "negative". Gold was slightly lower as investors moved into riskier
assets. Spot gold XAU= was trading at $1,512.60 per ounce,
down 0.06%. GOL/