GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks, oil advance before US job numbers

                                
 * Volatility eases after week of ups and downs
                                
 * Australia dollar climbs above $0.91 on rate outlook
                                
 * Reuters poll: Oct US payrolls forecast -175,000 jobs
                                
 By Kevin Plumberg
                                
 HONG KONG, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose ahead of the
latest U.S. payrolls report on Friday, expected to show the
fewest job losses since August 2008, while oil prices recovered
to $80 a barrel after a sharp drop on high U.S. fuel
inventories.
                                
 Stock indexes in Britain and France were expected to open
slightly higher, while Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> was expected to
open lower, according to financial bookmakers. U.S. equity
futures <SPc1> were down slightly after a solid 2 percent rise
in cash markets on Thursday.
                                
 The Australian dollar edged further above $0.91 after the
Reserve Bank of Australia sharply upgraded growth forecasts and
said more gradual increases in interest rates will be required.
                                
 That contrasted with the Federal Reserve this week, which
said rates will stay near zero for a long time, and the Bank of
England on Thursday, which extended its emergency supply of
funds.
                                
 Financial markets this week have been on a rollercoaster of
volatility, though tensions have eased ahead of the U.S.
October employment report. After jumping well above 30 on
Monday, the VIX index <.VIX>, a measure of risk based on S&P
500 index options, has tumbled for four days.
                                
 "I think the market is likely to rise both if the (U.S.
employment) numbers come in as forecast as well as if there's a
positive surprise," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at
Mitsubishi UFJ Securities in Tokyo.
                                
 "Even though the unemployment rate is likely to hit 10
percent, this will not badly affect things since it's
unavoidable. Employment can't recover that fast."
                                
 Japan's Nikkei share average <.N225> closed up 0.7 percent,
led by technology and retail stocks. NEC Corp <6701.T> jumped
10.1 percent, as dealers closed some bets against the stock
after Japan's largest PC maker announced a widely expected
share sale.
                                
 The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> advanced 1.8 percent, with gains spread evenly
across the materials, energy, industrials, IT and financials.
The Thomson Reuters index of regional stocks outside Japan rose
2.2 percent <.TRXFLDAXPU>.
                                
 The earnings outlook is dominated by the consumer
discretionary and IT sectors. Consumer discretionary stocks are
expected to record earnings growth of 58.9 percent over the
next 12 months, mostly driven by automakers, Thomson Reuters
Proprietary Research shows.
                                
 IT is expected to achieve equally bullish earnings growth
of 50.9 percent in the next 12 months.
                                
 PAYROLLS VIGIL
                                
 After a bigger-than-expected drop in first-time claims for
jobless insurance last week, investors felt some optimism about
the October payrolls figure. Of course the jobless claims
figures were outside of the period covered in the official
employment survey.
                                
 The U.S. economy likely shed 175,000 jobs in October,
according to a Reuters poll, the 22nd month of job losses, and
unemployment is forecast to tick up to 9.9 percent. However,
the pace of labour market contraction has been slowing.
                                
 In currency markets, the Australian dollar rose 0.2 percent
to $0.9120 <AUD=>, making steady progress back up to its
October high above $0.93. Its near-term direction may depend on
the chances of a December interest rate hike.
                                
 The swap market reflects a slightly better than 50/50
chance of a quarter percentage point increase.
                                
 The U.S. dollar was steady against major currencies <.DXY>
ahead of the payrolls number, but losing ground against
emerging Asian currencies.
                                
 "No doubt a strong jobs number could give the high-yielders
a lift," said Amber Rabinov, market economist at ANZ. "Having
said that we don't think there is much room for them to rally
as participants are very long on pro-cyclical currencies like
the Aussie and the Kiwi."
                                
 U.S. crude for December delivery rose 0.4 percent to $79.96
a barrel <CLc1>. Oil has spent the last month dancing around
$80 a barrel, in a range of $82 to $76.
 (Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in TOKYO and Anirban Nag
in SYDNEY; Editing by Kazunori Takada)