* Greece in spotlight as EU leaders meet in Brussels
* European stock index futures signal stronger open
* Asian stocks advance on strong regional data
* Aussie dollar rallies, shares up after upbeat jobs report
* China consumer inflation slows, lending strong
By Anshuman Daga
SINGAPORE, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The euro rose on Thursday
ahead of a key EU summit that could lay the groundwork for a
rescue of debt-stricken Greece, while Asian stocks gained for a
third day, powered by strong economic data from Australia and
China.
European Union leaders are expected to reach a political
agreement at the summit to help Greece, with the financial
details to be hammered out at finance ministers' meeting in
Brussels on Monday, a senior EU source told Reuters.
But any emergency aid is likely to require a big commitment
from Athens on getting its economy in order, and may do little
to ease investors' long-term concerns about fiscal tensions in
the euro zone and whether they will hurt the global economic
recovery. []
Greece's ballooning deficit and debt have reverberated
across financial markets in recent months, hitting the euro
<EUR=>, regional banking stocks and some government bonds, and
prompting many investors to pull back from riskier assets
worldwide.
Financial spreadbetters expected Britain's FTSE 100
<>, Germany's DAX <> and France's CAC 40 <> to
open 0.4 to 0.6 percent higher, building on Asian gains, while
investors awaited news from the EU meeting. U.S. stock futures
<SPc1> also rose 0.4 percent.
"It seems all markets are focused on events in the euro
zone and 'will they' or 'won't they' commit bags of cash to a
bailout in some manner," said David Watt, senior currency
strategist at RBC Capital.
The euro edged up 0.37 percent to $1.3783, a day after it
shed 0.4 percent on concerns about the fiscal problems facing
euro zone countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain. It hit
a 8-1/2-month low of around $1.3585 last week on trading
platform EBS.
Asian shares shrugged off euro zone jitters and sluggish
U.S. markets, buoyed by data showing a surge in employment in
Australia and stronger-than-expected bank lending in China in
January.
The MSCI index of Asian stocks traded outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> advanced 1.6 percent, with the metals and
energy sector leading the way. Japan was closed for a national
holiday.
The index has lost more than 8 percent so far this year
after surging nearly 70 percent in 2009, far outpacing gains of
just 20 percent in U.S. and European countries.
Asian corporate earnings have mostly met market estimates
this year due to strong regional economic growth, with equity
analysts recently upgrading estimates for metals and mining
industries and the technology sector.
Australian shares <> rose 0.9 percent to their highest
close in one week and the Australian dollar <AUD=D4> jumped
three-quarters of a cent after data showed employment surged
past all forecasts for a fifth straight month in January.
The jobless rate also dove to an 11-month low, reigniting
talk interest rates would have to go up again as early as
March. []
In China, whose markets have been pressured by worries
about an official clampdown on excessive credit, data showed
banks lent 1.39 trillion yuan of loans in January, more than
the 1.35 trillion yuan economists had forecast.
Other data showed consumer inflation moderated more than
expected in the year to January, though producer price
inflation accelerated. []
"A big part of the risk perception that motivated the
sell-down of Chinese stocks was concerns about an inflation
breakout and possibly that China would have to dramatically
tighten monetary policy in response," said Michael Kurtz, head
of Asian equity strategy at Macquarie in Shanghai.
"This number goes a long way in reducing those worries,"
Kurtz said, referring to the consumer inflation data.
Beijing's moves to staunch excessive credit and keep the
economy from overheating have pushed Shanghai <> and Hong
Kong <> indexes down more than 10 percent from November and
weighed on stocks in the rest of Asia and globally.
But Shanghai shares rose 0.2 percent after the latest data,
while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index <> gained 1.1 percent.
South Korea's central bank signalled interest rates would
stay at a record low for much of the first half, citing
uncertainties over the economic outlook and European sovereign
debt problems. []
Wall Street edged lower and U.S. Treasuries fell on
Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave his
most detailed comments to date on how the U.S central bank will
begin to wean the economy off its extraordinary monetary
stimulus. []
U.S. oil futures <CLc1> climbed toward $75 a barrel, adding
to the previous session's gains on an upbeat oil demand growth
forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
[]
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange <CMCU3> rose
more than 3 percent, pulling up Shanghai metal 1.5 percent,
after a modest fall in the previous session. []
(Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in SYDNEY)
