* Nikkei, MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan both up 1.8 percent
* Eurostoxx 50 futures up 1.2 percent, S&P 500 futures up
0.5 percent
* Brent crude tops $122 a barrel
* Australian dollar at 29-year high near $1.06
* Gold reaches record $1,500 an ounce
(Adds details, updates prices)
By Alex Richardson
SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on
Wednesday as strong results from chip maker Intel Corp
prompted a rally in tech shares, while renewed strength in
metals prices boosted materials companies and also lifted the
commodity-linked Australian dollar.
Upbeat U.S. and European corporate earnings helped soothe
market sentiment, which had been roiled at the start of the week
when rating agency S&P warned it could cut the United States'
sovereign credit rating and as speculation intensified that
Greece would need to restructure its debt.
Index futures pointed to a higher opening for European and
U.S. stock markets, with Euro STOXX 50 futures <STXEc1> up 1.2
percent and S&P 500 futures <SPc1> gaining 0.5 percent.
"All guns are blazing at the moment in the right direction,"
said Austock Group senior client adviser Michael Heffernan.
The euro bounced off a two-week low, with business activity
data from France and Germany supporting expectations that the
European Central Bank will continue lifting interest rates,
boosting the single currency's yield advantage over the dollar.
Rising equities and a weaker dollar renewed interest in
commodities, with Brent crude reaching $122 a barrel, copper
rising and gold hitting a record above $1,500 an ounce.
After the Wall Street close, Intel reported strong sales and
forecast quarterly revenues well above Wall Street estimates.
[]
U.S. stocks had been lifted by strong earnings from
materials and healthcare firms such as Johnson & Johnson
.
Japan's Nikkei share average rose 1.8 percent with
chip stocks prominent among the gainers, although some market
players said the Intel report had prompted short-covering rather
than the start of a turnaround in the fortunes of the tech
sector, which has underperformed this year.
"The market is rebounding, but it's nothing more than
short-covering," said Kenichi Hirano, a strategist at Tachibana
Securities. "Investors will not go long until they see Japanese
corporate earnings later this month."
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan
rose 1.8 percent, with the tech sub-index
up 3.4 percent and the materials sector
gaining 2.3 percent.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent on Tuesday, while the
Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.5 percent.
CARRY TRADE
The euro traded around $1.44, having bounced off a
two-week low around $1.4155 set on Monday.
The European Central Bank earlier this month raised its key
interest rate from a record low, and analysts see further
tightening in the pipeline.
With the Bank of Japan and U.S. Federal Reserve expected to
keep their monetary policy ultra-loose for the time being, the
dollar and yen have become the currencies of choice for the
carry trade -- the strategy of use cheap loans to fund
investments in higher yielding assets.
The hunt for yield is boosting the Australian dollar
, which hit a fresh 29-year high around $1.0599.
The yen was pressured by data showing Japan logged a
smaller-than-expected trade surplus in March, a sign of the
disruption to supply chains caused by a massive March 11
earthquake and tsunami in the northeast.
"There is little doubt that this is a factor for the yen to
weaken," said Daisuke Karakama, market economist for Mizuho
Corporate Bank in Tokyo.
"Two factors that had supported yen strength until now are
shrinking U.S.-Japan interest rate differentials and exporter
flows. Today's data shows that one of those is weakening."
The dollar rose 0.4 percent from late U.S. trade on Tuesday
to 82.94 yen . Measured against a basket of major
currencies, the dollar fell 0.2 percent.
Gold hit a record $1,500.16 and silver hit a
31-year high at $44.34 an ounce. London metal exchange copper
rose 1 percent to $9,438 a tonne.
A weaker dollar tends to boost the attractiveness of
commodities, which are mostly priced in the U.S. currency.
Oil prices rose, helped by a larger-than-expected draw in
U.S. stockpiles. Brent crude <LCOc1> was up 0.6 percent at
$122.04 a barrel and U.S. crude gained 0.8 percent to $109.09.
(Additional reporting by Ian Chua and Victoria Thieberger in
Sydney and Masayuki Kitano in Singapore; Editing by Richard
Borsuk)
