* Profit-taking weighs on Asian stocks
* China c.bank raises yield in bill auction; commodities
down
* Aussie firmer after better-than-expected retail sales
* Nikkei shrugs off finmin resignation
By Elaine Lies
TOKYO, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Asian shares eased after hitting a
17-month high on Thursday, while the dollar was steady as
investors kept caution before U.S. nonfarm payrolls data later
in the week for hints on the greenback's direction.
Commodities came off the boil, dragged lower after China's
central bank took steps to tighten monetary policy and soak up
money from the financial system.
Industrial metals bore the brunt of commodities selling,
which saw Shanghai copper erase a near-five percent gain and
steel futures hit their downside limit. The weakness also
extended into oil, which reversed early gains to trade half a
percent lower, and gold also retreated.
The Australian dollar pared some of its gains hurt by
profit-taking after jumping to a 15-month high against the yen
and a two-year peak against the euro on the strong retail sales
data, which added to the chances of another rise in interest
rates as early as February. []
China's central bank surprise hike in the auction yield of
its three-month bills for the first time since mid-August
prompted high-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar
to come off intraday peaks. []
The U.S. dollar jumped against the yen after new Japanese
Finance Minister Naoto Kan said he wanted the yen to weaken
more. The dollar surged to the day's high of 92.82 yen <JPY=>,
up from around 92.20 yen just before Kan's comments reached the
market.
Many investors are turning their focus to U.S. non-farm
payrolls data due out on Friday to wait for trading direction.
The rate of job losses at U.S. private employers slowed in
December to 84,000 from 145,000 in November but still exceeded
the 72,000 expected by economists.
"Investors are waiting for the U.S. jobs report on Friday
but the current climate of the market is one of investors
willing to take risk," said Tomohiro Nishida, treasury
department manager at Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking.
Speaking in Shanghai, James Bullard, president of the St.
Louis Federal Reserve Bank, said the market in the United
States is improving and the economy is close to the point when
the unemployment rate will start to fall.
He also said house prices were stabilising, and that
housing starts were likely to steady and cease to be a drag on
growth.
Australian stocks <> fell 0.5 percent, as surprisingly
strong retail sales data stoked expectations for an interest
rate rise next month, weighing on rate sensitive stocks such as
banks.
Japan's Nikkei <> slipped 0.5 percent, while South
Korea's Kospi <> dropped 1.3 percent.
Samsung Electronics' <005930.KS>, riding a strong price
recovery in its memory chips business and benefiting from
booming flat screen TV sales, issued estimates that signal a
promising year for consumer electronics. Its shares were off
more than 3 percent after rising to a record ahead of the news.
The MSCI Index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS>, which has been trading at 17-month highs,
edged down 0.7 percent. A similar Thomson Reuters index
<.TRXFLDAXPU> shed 0.7 percent.
CHINA CONCERN
"If China were to show a clearer stance toward liquidity
tightening in coming months, there is a possibility that market
players would link it to the yuan's revaluation and raise
worries about commodity and share prices," said Jun Kato,
senior chief analyst at Shinkin Central Bank Research
Institute.
Gold slipped on Thursday after reaching a three-week high
above $1,140 per ounce the previous day, weighed down by
investors' caution ahead of the U.S. jobs data. Spot gold
<XAU=> was changing hands around $1,133.40 an ounce as of 0611
GMT.
Crude oil for February delivery <CLc1> fell back below $83
on Thursday after settling up $1.41 a day earlier, its highest
close since Oct 9, 2008.
The Australian dollar shone after retail sales rose 1.4
percent in November, strengthening expectations of a further
interest rate hike, which stands at 3.75 percent after three
25-basis-point increases in as many months. []
"Rates at the moment are just too low for an economy that
has proven very resilient and has come out of a global
recession rather unscathed," said Helen Kevans, an economist at
JPMorgan.
"We expect rates at 4.5 percent mid-year and 5 percent by
year-end."
The Aussie rose as far as $0.9268 <AUD=> after the data
before falling back to $0.9203. It shot up as far as 85.54 yen,
its highest since late Sept. 2008 <AUDJPY=R>.
The dollar index <.DXY>, which measures the value of the
greenback against a basket of currencies, edged up 0.2 percent
to 77.633. It lost some ground against the euro the previous
day after the release of the Fed minutes.
(Additional reporting by Jungyoung Park in SEOUL and Kaori
Kaneko and Aiko Hayashi in TOKYO; Editing by Jan Dahinten)
