* Stock markets cautious after Bernanke's comments
* Dollar, commodity prices subdued
* Global exchange merger news helps boost ASX shares
(Updates prices, adds details)
By Ian Chua
SYDNEY, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Asian stock markets fell on
Thursday, while the dollar struggled to make much headway after
the U.S. central bank chief signalled the recovery in the
world's biggest economy was still fragile and warned against
sharp spending cuts.
Commodity prices including crude oil were subdued after
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested U.S. economic
conditions were still too weak for the central bank to pull back
on its vast monetary stimulus, despite a welcome drop in the
jobless rate.
Japan's Nikkei slipped, while shares elsewhere in
Asia slid 0.7 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and South Korea's KOSPI
have completely erased this year's gains and were back
at levels not seen since late December.
In contrast, last year's laggards like the Nikkei remained
well in the black for the year.
"It's not like buying in Japanese stocks has completely
stopped, but investors have been looking for a reason to take
profits and now they're cautious about overheating in the
market," said Norikazu Kitta, strategist at Nikko Cordial
Securities.
Despite the generally downbeat mood, there were patchy
bright spots in the market, among them, shares in Australian
bourse operator ASX jumped more than 4 percent, while
Singapore Exchange gained about 1.6 percent.
Investors are hoping that merger news between major bourses
like the NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse would boost prospects
of ASX's own planned merger with Singapore Exchange, which is
facing political hurdles.
Global miner Rio Tinto edged up 0.3 percent ahead
of its December-half results. Investors, however, pushed SingTel
shares down 1 percent after the telecom company
unveiled a 2.2 percent fall in quarterly profit.
DOLLAR SUBDUED
Meanwhile, the dollar index , which tracks the
greenback's performance against a basket of major currencies,
limped up 0.06 percent to 77.690 after a steep decline
overnight.
Still, many traders think the dollar is in a holding pattern
for the near term as the euro was also lacking upward momentum
of its own after the European Central Bank last week quelled
expectations of an early rate hike.
The euro traded at $1.3715 , down slightly from late
U.S. levels but still up about 1 percent on the week.
"It's difficult for now for the euro to rise above the peak
hit earlier this month. It will need a fresh factor to go beyond
that peak," said Keiji Matsumoto, a strategist at Nikko Cordial
Securities.
The Australian dollar dipped slightly in the wake
of solid jobs numbers as investors bet they were not so strong
as to make a rate rise more likely anytime soon. []
U.S. crude was little changed at $86.83 a barrel,
while gold edged lower to $1,361.55 an ounce, well off a
lifetime high around $1,430 hit in December.
Copper, which hit an all-time high of $10,160 per tonne on
Monday, traded at $9,988 .
(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa and Hideyuki Sano in
Tokyo; Editing by Andrew Marshall)
