* Japan's Nikkei rises 0.9 pct, S&P futures up 0.5 pct
* BRIC give US dollar a pass, but it still falls vs euro
* Templeton's Mobius: still value to be found, likes Russia
* Lingering questions on recovery's sustainability
By Kevin Plumberg
HONG KONG, June 17 (Reuters) - Asian stocks outside Japan
fell for a fourth day on Wednesday, weighed by resource-related
shares and doubts about a global economic recovery, while U.S.
Treasuries eased on profit taking after a surge overnight.
Japan's Nikkei share average outperformed the region,
rising 0.9 percent on bargain hunting after a sharp drop on
Tuesday and a shift into defensive sectors.
Major European stock market opened slightly weaker, with
the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> dipping 0.5 percent,
although Wall Street futures <SPc2> were actually up 0.4
percent.
Oil prices advanced after bouncing off $70 a barrel for a
third day, convincing dealers that crude would have difficulty
falling much below $70 if the dollar continued to weaken.
Several U.S. economic indicators this week have come in
below expectations, raising fears that investors may have
pushed up equity and commodity prices too far, too quickly.
However, the corrective move lower in equity and commodity
prices has been tame, so far.
"The market seems to be bewildered, facing lots of
different factors," said Kazuyuki Kato, treasury department
manager at Mizuho Trust and Banking in Tokyo. "And investors
are shying away from taking risks after stocks entered a
correction phase as optimism for the economy had gone too far,"
he said.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan
<.MIAPJ0000PUS> fell 0.8 percent and looked set for its fourth
consecutive day of losses. The index has now fallen 5.6 percent
from an eight-month high reached two weeks ago.
The materials sector had continued to climb after the broad
market began to drift lower after June 3, but along with the
energy sector this week has been leading the region lower.
Australian shares fell 1.5 percent to the lowest close
since June 1, led by miner BHP Billiton <BHP.AX> and bank
stocks.
U.S. markets fell more than 1 percent overnight as mixed
economic data and disappointing sales by top U.S. consumer
electronic retailer Best Buy spurred worries about an anaemic
recovery. []
The uncertain global economic outlook has made some
investors convictionless, as they dance through trendless
markets, but other investors are sticking to their guns.
"We'll have corrections along the way, but it's not a
situation in which we have nothing to buy," said Mark Mobius,
who manages around $24 billion in emerging market assets with
Templeton Asset Management.
"Given the quantity of money being printed all over the
world with the stimulus packages, equities are definitely going
to be moving up," he said in an interview in Vienna.
Mobius said he was finding value in Russian and eastern
European shares.
BRIC MUM ON DOLLAR
Meanwhile. the U.S. dollar slid against the euro, which
rose 0.55 percent to $1.3908 in thin trade.
Dealers did not spot any trends, but said covering of bets
against the euro were largely dominating trade.
Brazil, Russia, India and China after a first summit
together issued a joint statement that did not mention any
doubts about the dollar's role as the primary reserve currency,
effectively removing that issue as an uncertainty for the
market.
The dollar had been under some pressure heading into the
summit on fears that Russia, which has publicly made clear it
wants to have new world reserve currencies, would coax China
into bashing the dollar together. []
Besides headlines about the U.S. dollar's global reserve
role, perceptions on risk expressed through equity markets have
also been a driver. Fears that price increases have run ahead
of fundamentals, particularly with earnings estimates for 2010
in the double digits, have weighed on global stocks.
"That is a similar picture of markets around the globe and
quite appropriately so, given we are in the midst of a
reassessment of expectations for the global economy - about
which there is little more agreement than that challenges lie
ahead," said Patrick Bennett, Asia foreign exchange and rates
strategist with Societe Generale in Hong Kong in a note.
Commodity markets have been very sensitive to this notion.
U.S. crude oil futures rose above $71 a barrel, snapping a
three-day losing streak as the dollar slid. The July contract
<CLc1> was up 0.9 percent to $71.10 a barrel after touching a
session low of $69.91 earlier.
The American Petroleum Institute data showed late on
Tuesday that U.S. crude stocks fell by a smaller-than-expected
1.3 million barrels last week. The U.S. Energy Information
Administration will release its inventory data later in the
day.
The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index <.CRB>, a basket of 19
commodity futures, has slipped about 4 percent from a
seven-month high reached last Thursday. It was still up 15
percent since the end of April.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield <US10YT=RR>
ticked up to 3.69 percent after tumbling to 3.66 percent late
on Tuesday in New York. After climbing to an eight-month high
of 4 percent on Thursday, the 10-year yield has come off
sharply as investors bought back higher-yielding bonds as
doubts about the recovery pile up.
(Additional reporting by Charlotte Cooper in TOKYO; Editing
by Kazunori Takada)
