* Lull in momentum as Wall Street scales record peaks
* MSCI AxJ heads for steady week, softest in a month
* Dollar bounce runs out of puff as U.S. labour market looks
weak
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Tom Westbrook and Chibuike Oguh
SINGAPORE/NEW YORK, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Asia's stock markets
bounced on Friday following Wall Street's lead, but were set for
their softest week in about a month as investors grapple with
tepid economic data and lofty valuations after a huge rally that
has wiped out coronavirus losses.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.6% on Friday, though it is it poised to
snap a four-week winning streak with a small weekly loss.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 edged up 0.3% but was headed for a
1.5% weekly drop, while a bond market selloff has also moderated
in recent days as caution and summer-time lassitude weighs on
the mood after the S&P 500 .SPX touched another record
intraday peak.
Another surge in tech stocks took the Nasdaq .IXIC to a
new all-time closing high. .N
"It's always going to be a little harder, once that's
happened, to figure out where things are going," said ING's head
of Asia research, Rob Carnell of the U.S. stock market.
In the absence of a disaster, he said, upward drift is
probably the most likely direction, though perhaps with less
conviction than the exuberance that has driven world stocks
.MIWD00000PUS up 50% from March troughs.
"The news is just too mixed at the moment rather than
outright catastrophically, apocalyptically bad. And so
(investors are) going to keep on cautiously adding and things
will carry on going up - and it can go on a long time like
that."
S&P 500 futures ESc1 rose 0.2%, FTSE futures FFIc1 were
steady and European futures STXEc1 were up 0.3%.
Overnight, clouds returned to the U.S. labour market
outlook, with weekly jobless claims back over a million to put
the total number of Americans on unemployment benefits at 28
million.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's business index also
missed expectations and together the weak readings pushed down
nominal U.S. yields and dragged on the dollar. Benchmark U.S.
10-year debt US10YT=RR yields were last steady at 0.6558%.
Investors are looking ahead to purchasing managers' index
surveys across Europe, Britain and the United States - where
steady, slightly positive, readings are expected - for the next
broad gauge of the recovery's progress.
Japan's factory activity fell in August for a 16th month, a
private business survey showed, casting doubt over
manufacturers' hopes for a rapid recovery.
DOLLAR BLUES
In currency markets, the U.S. dollar seems unable to shake
downward pressure.
A bounce in the wake of the release of Federal Reserve
minutes that fell short of dovish market expectations wore off
fairly quickly and it looks headed for a ninth consecutive
weekly loss against a basket of currencies =USD . FRX/
Sterling GBP= reversed losses against the dollar overnight
to sit at $1.3122 and the risk-sensitive Australian dollar again
sojourned above $0.72. The euro EUR=EBS was steady at $1.1864.
Currency traders are increasingly focused on an address next
Thursday by Fed Chair Jerome Powell in case he reveals any
details of an expected shift in policy emphasis - especially
around inflation - that were absent in the minutes. The Japanese yen JPY= inched up to 105.67 after an
inflation miss supported real yields. The Thai baht THB= is
tracking for its worst week in a month as investors begin to
fret about political unrest.
Elsewhere, and perhaps indicating the low bar for impressing
traders, markets interpreted the lack of a U.S. rebuff to a
Chinese push for trade talks soon as a positive sign and the
yuan CNH= hit a seven-month high of 6.8935. CNY/
In commodity markets, the prospect of production cuts had
oil prices on track for a third straight weekly gain. Brent
crude futures LCOc1 were last up 0.4% at $45.06 a barrel and
U.S. crude future CLc1 rose 0.2% to $42.90 a barrel.
Gold XAU= was steady at $1,947.66 an ounce.
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Global assets http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Emerging markets http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
MSCI All Country Wolrd Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
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