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Asia stocks steady after oil surge lifts Wall Street

Published 2019-06-13, 08:59 p/m
© Reuters.  Asia stocks steady after oil surge lifts Wall Street
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* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4

* MSCI Asia-Pacific index steady, Nikkei dips 0.1%

* Wall St rises after Middle East tanker attacks boosts oil

* Caution seen prevailing ahead of Fed's meeting next week

By Shinichi Saoshiro

TOKYO, June 14 (Reuters) - Asian stocks held their ground on Friday after Wall Street gained on a surge in oil prices as attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman stoked U.S.-Iran tensions and raised concerns over supply flows through one of the world's main sea lanes.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was little changed.

Australian stocks .AXJO edged up 0.05% while Japan's Nikkei .N225 dipped 0.1%.

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday after two days of declines, with energy shares rebounding on the back of crude oil's surge. .N

Wall Street shares have had a strong run in June on hopes the Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy soon to counter a slowing global economy due to the escalating trade war with China. The S&P 500 .SPX index is up about 5% so far for the month.

But equity market gains were limited ahead of the Fed's June 18-19 meeting, which will give investors an opportunity to see if the Fed's monetary policy stance is in sync with market expectations for a near-term rate cut.

"There is a large degree of uncertainty going into next week's FOMC (Federal Reserve Open Committee) meeting as market reaction will differ significantly depending on whether the Fed hints toward easing policy," said Shusuke Yamada, chief Japan FX and equity strategist at Bank Of America Merrill Lynch.

"A wait-and-see mood is likely to begin prevailing in the markets ahead of the FOMC."

In commodities, Brent crude futures LCOc1 slipped 0.29% to $61.13 per barrel after rallying 2.3% the previous day.

Brent surged on Thursday after two oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman, one Norwegian-owned and the other Japanese-owned.

The United States has blamed Iran for the assaults. But U.S. and European security officials as well as regional analysts left open the possibility that Iranian proxies, or someone else entirely, might have been responsible. crude CLc1 slipped 0.86% to $51.83 per barrel after rising more than 2 percent on Thursday.

The dollar index .DXY against a basket of six major currencies was little changed at 96.998 after ending the previous day nearly flat, with caution ahead of the next week's Fed meeting keeping the greenback in a tight range.

The euro was steady at $1.1281 EUR= while the greenback dipped 0.1% to 108.295 yen JPY= .

The Australian dollar AUD=D4 was a touch lower at $0.6914, still shaky after the previous day's losses. The Aussie had slipped to a two-week trough of $0.6901 on Thursday after soft domestic labour data added to expectations of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia. (Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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