* Investors mark time before U.S. jobs data at 1230 GMT
* Asian stocks up just 0.3 percent
* Yen near 15-yr high against dollar
SYDNEY, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Asian stocks squeezed higher on
Friday but gains were tentative ahead of U.S. jobs data that
will be closely watched for signals on whether the world's
biggest economy is headed for a second recession.
There was no missing the sombre mood ahead of the
employment report at 1230 GMT. Surprisingly strong U.S.
manufacturing data earlier this week had dispelled some gloom
about faltering growth, but investors were far from convinced
all was well.
The cautious tone spill over into Europe, where the
FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top shares, Britain's FTSE
100 <>, Germany's Dax <> and France's CAC 40 <>
all edged up 0.2-0.3 percent. U.S. S&P 500 futures <SPc1>
weakened a fraction. [] []
Yet, some warned the gloom may be overdone.
"Market players have been building up positions for some
time to brace for a weak U.S. recovery. Any upside surprise in
the payrolls data could move the market," said Daisuke
Karakama, market economist at Mizuho Corporate Bank.
The MSCI Asian stock index outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS>
edged up just 0.3 percent. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.6 percent, but
was still down more than 13 percent for the year.
Sony Corp <6758.T> managed to shrug off economic woes by
adding 2.4 percent after it said it was expanding a
video-on-demand service in Europe.
The U.S. labour market is forecast to have shed 100,000
jobs in August as the jobless rate crept higher to 9.6 percent.
[] <ECONUS>
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For a graphic on U.S. jobs data, click on
http://r.reuters.com/bup98n
For a PDF report on the yen, please click on
http://r.reuters.com/nef47n
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As always, a bad outcome would likely hammer assets deemed
dependent on strong economic growth, such as stocks and
commodities, whilst boosting government bonds.
Underscoring angst about U.S. growth, traditional
safe-haven currencies clung to recent peaks, while U.S.
Treasury yields edged lower. <RTRTSY1>
The yen <JPY=> was locked near a 15-year high against the
dollar, while the Swiss franc <CHF=> flew near a record against
the euro <EUR=> [].
Commodity prices barely budged. Gold <XAU=> was little
changed at $1,251.25 an ounce [] and oil was down 0.4
percent at 74.70 a barrel. []
CAN ASIAN MARKETS HOLD UP?
Many believe Asian economies can charge ahead even with
tepid U.S. growth, owing to sturdy demand from emerging market
giants China and India.
Yet, it is less clear Asian stocks can weather a U.S.
slowdown.
Some argue that despite Asia's stellar growth profile, its
equity markets are still inextricably linked to developed
markets -- institutional investors in the west are still among
the biggest buyers of Asian stocks.
Mark Matthews from Macquarie in Hong Kong, for instance,
said the correlation between the MSCI Asia ex-Japan stock index
and the MSCI World Index <.MIWD00000PUS> has risen to 0.8
between 2005 and 2010, from 0.63 in the five years up to 2005.
Price action so far seemed to suggest that holds some
truth. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index has defied the region's
impressive growth and is down 0.7 percent this year. The MSCI
World index is also down, but by a bigger margin at 3.5
percent.
But other argued that over the longer term, Asia's solid
growth and healthy public finance would increasingly help it to
survive thriftier U.S. and European consumers.
"In the short term, I don't think any market is immune to
news flow, not least from the U.S. and its payrolls," said Alex
Boggis, a fund manager at Aberdeen, which manages more than
$246 billion in assets.
"But longer term, it would do better, and in the medium
term, it would do better."
(Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Alex Richardson)
