Asian shares retreat, Nikkei hit hard as yen stays firm

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares retreated from multi-month highs on Wednesday amid caution as the earnings season gathers pace, with Tokyo stocks falling to three-week closing lows in response to a firm yen.

"Asian markets have been climbing steadily and it's natural for investors to want to book profits as the region's earnings season begins in full force later this month," said Hirokazu Yuihama, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

"The uptrend remains intact given improving fundamentals globally, so selling like this is a healthy correction that may lead to putting a solid floor to prices," he said.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> fell 0.3 percent after earlier reaching a 17-1/2-month high. The index has risen nearly 30 percent since a low touched in June, 2012.

The yen held firm against the dollar and the euro as monetary easing announced on Tuesday by the Bank of Japan failed to provide an immediate stimulus as some had hoped, though many analysts acknowledged the BOJ's resolve to tackle Japan's stubborn deflation and economic stagnation.

The stronger yen hurt Japanese exporters, dragging the benchmark Nikkei average <.n225> down 2.1 percent to a three-week closing low. The yen has weakened by around 12 percent since mid-November against the dollar, and boosted the Nikkei by more than 20 percent as a weaker yen improved exporters' earnings outlook. <.t/>

The BOJ on Tuesday doubled its inflation target to 2 percent and adopted an open-ended commitment to buy assets starting 2014, sparking an unwinding of yen short positions from speculators looking for more immediate easing step.

The dollar fell 0.6 percent to 88.20 yen while the euro slid 0.7 percent to 117.45 yen. The dollar hit a 2-1/2-year high of 90.25 yen on Monday.

Many still believe the yen will resume its recent downtrend, seeing the latest rebound in the Japanese currency as a correction to its rapid and sharp decline.

With the BOJ joining the continued push by global central banks to support growth, Morgan Stanley said in a research note that policy easing by central banks was positive for emerging markets, with more bond portfolio inflows increasingly towards local markets.

"Our key themes for 2013 are rebalancing and reflation, with both prevalent so far this year. Even given a migration towards global equities and away from fixed income, emerging market fixed income remains well-placed," it said.

Elsewhere, Hong Kong and Chinese shares were among the hardest hit as investors took profits from recent gains, with indexes faltering at technical resistances. Hong Kong <.hsi> shares slipped from a 19-1/2-month high and were down 0.4 percent while Shanghai shares <.ssec> fell 0.5 percent, moving further away from a 7-1/2 month high.

"We have risen by quite a bit in a very short time, so investors have been taking some profit in the last week or so, looking for new ideas to rotate into," said Larry Jiang, chief strategist at Guotai Junan International Securities.

Australian shares <.axjo> bucked the trend to edge up 0.2 percent to their highest close in almost 21 months after miner BHP Billiton gained after reporting a rise in quarterly iron ore production.

BETTER ENVIRONMENT

European markets are seen rising, with financial spread-betters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open as much as 0.4 percent higher. U.S. stock futures were down 0.2 percent, pointing to a softer Wall Street start. <.l><.eu><.n/>

On Tuesday, hopes of an improvement in the global economy led the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> to a five-year high.

Investors were also cheered by easing worries over the U.S. budget crisis.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives said they aim to pass on Wednesday a nearly four-month extension of the U.S. debt limit to May 19.

U.S. crude was down 0.1 percent to $96.59 a barrel and Brent eased 0.2 percent to $112.23.

Spot gold was at $1,692.66 an ounce, near Tuesday's one-month high of $1,695.76, while London copper traded down 0.3 percent at $8,107 a metric ton but clinging near a one-week high of $$8,144.50 hit on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting by Clement Tan in Hong Kong; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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India Ink: India Undermined by Lack of Long-Term Vision

(Page 2 of 2)

Finally, the debate over overhauls and policy is muddied by mainstream political parties that have no clear economic vision. Instead, every party prefers to take stances that are inconsistent but that are perceived to serve it well in the short term.

In 1991, the finance minister Manmohan Singh opened up the Indian economy by relaxing many import and foreign investment restrictions and simplifying a byzantine licensing regime. But as prime minister since 2004, he has been far more timid in pushing through a second major round of policy changes.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which headed India’s coalition government from 1999 to 2004, used to pitch strongly for economic liberalization, promising to, for example, allow greater foreign investment in India’s retailing sector. Now that it is in the opposition, however, the party has resisted the passage of that very same measure for retailing — resisted it so strongly, in fact, that it refused to let Parliament function for days on end, claiming that big-box retailing chains would hurt small shopkeepers.

“There may have been some rationale for it in 2004,” Arun Jaitley, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, said vaguely by way of not quite clarifying his party’s reversal on the policy.

Such policy reversals have drawn sharp criticism from both foreign and domestic analysts and investors. In 2006, the Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill ranked India a lowly 97th in the world by potential risks to growth, below Brazil and the Philippines. In his 2011 book “Growth Map,” Mr. O’Neill said that the country’s problems boiled down to a lack of leadership.

Last April the steel baron Lakshmi Mittal said that India was “low on the investment priority list of countries.”

Ratan Tata, who recently stepped down as chairman of the Tata Sons empire, told The Financial Times in an interview that even though he was “bullish about India’s potential,” Indian companies could not help but look overseas, where “you wouldn’t have an eight-year or seven-year wait to get all the clearances for a steel plant.”

Late last year, in a rare moment of plain speaking, Mr. Singh, the prime minister, acknowledged that his government needed “courage and some risks” to see India through the policy logjam.

Pashmina shawls and loaded iPods will not do the trick any more.

Samanth Subramanian is the India correspondent for The National. He is working on a book about the Sri Lankan civil war.

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Recibe el Cenart el “Live Performers Meeting” del 24 al 26 de enero

México, 22 Ene. (Notimex).- Del 24 al 26 de enero en el Centro Nacional de las Artes (Cenart) se llevará a cabo el “Live Performers Meeting” (LPM), el evento más importante a nivel mundial dedicado a la manipulación y mezcla de video en tiempo real.

Mediante un comunicado de la oficina de prensa del Cenart, se informó que el encuentro incluirá otras actividades en el Centro Cultural Border y la Fundación Alumnos47.

El LPM ofrece la oportunidad de experimentar tres días de actuaciones audiovisuales, talleres, mesas redondas, muestra de productos presentados por cientos de VJs, artistas audiovisuales, profesionales de los nuevos medios y pensadores de todo el mundo.

El evento promueve la práctica de las actuaciones de video en directo, gracias a un programa rico e impredecible que busca explorar temas diferentes a través de nuevos lenguajes audiovisuales, técnicas y tecnologías.

Las atracciones principales de la edición mexicana serán una gran variedad de presentaciones audiovisuales en vivo, talleres, showcases y sesiones de Djs con Vjs, así como un concurso internacional de video jockeys.

El público interesado encontrará espectáculos que van desde el live cinema, videodanza, interacción en vivo, videoarte, mapping, instalaciones multimedia, programación, arte generativo, live coding, danza y teatro con visuales, entre otras.

El LPM empezó en Italia hace ocho años y ha reunido a más de dos mil artistas de todo el mundo en sus 11 ediciones pasadas. Más de 50 mil personas han asistido a sus actividades ya que ofrece una gran gama de talleres y showcases gratuitos para el público en general, así como algunos de paga.

En esta edición en la Ciudad de México, más de 200 artistas provenientes de Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Canadá, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, España, Estados Unidos, Francia, Italia, México, Perú, Turquía, Reino Unido, Rusia, Uruguay y Venezuela, participarán en casi 100 presentaciones y talleres.

Las presentaciones audiovisuales se realizarán del 24 al 26 de enero, en el Centro Nacional de las Artes. Éstas que van desde el video teatro a la video danza, actuaciones de live cinema, visuales y música generativa, live coding, hasta las fiestas finales animadas por DJs y VJs internacionales.

El Cenart, el Centro Cultural Border y la Fundación Alumnos47 albergarán en un horario de 10:00 a 18:00 horas talleres y presentaciones dedicados a aprender y compartir, basándose en el tema de la cultura de video en vivo.

Se explorarán las teorías de producción de contenidos y el procesamiento de imágenes, además de estudiar y experimentar con nuevas tecnologías así como desarrollar debates sobre la cultura de prácticas libres y Open Source.

NTX/LGZ/MAG

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Vera Wang Reveals Details of Michelle Kwan's Wedding Dress

By Cynthia Wang

01/21/2013 at 07:00 PM EST

Michelle Kwan and Clay Pell

Courtesy of Caitlin Maloney

Although she was a singles figure skater throughout her successful career, Michelle Kwan did have one steadfast partner on the ice – fashion designer Vera Wang.

"I wore so many skating dresses designed by her, whole skating shows and everything," Kwan, 32, tells PEOPLE. "I have a long relationship with her."

And that made picking a wedding dress designer a fairly easy decision.

For Kwan's Rhode Island nuptials on Jan. 19 to Clay Pell, 31, Wang put plenty of consideration into her creation.

"She is marrying someone whose family has a political history, and Michelle is living and working in Washington, D.C.," the designer says. "[The dress] had to have a certain dignity and a certain classicism, and I think it was a lot about a new way of looking at tradition."

So Wang created an ivory, strapless mermaid gown for Kwan, made with layers of silk organza and featuring lace appliqué.

"The fact that it's got an inordinate amount of handwork in terms of lace is really a tribute to the art of hand-piecing lace," Wang says. "There is a princess-slash-queenly level of sophistication and quiet without sacrificing a lot of detail."

To complement the formal wedding gown, Kwan asked Wang what she thought of designing a second dress for the reception. "She said, 'Yeah, I got it,' " Kwan says. "She said, 'First dance, yes, and then you've got to change into something else.' "

Her history with the skater was not lost on Wang. "I'm really very honored and very thrilled that a, Michelle has found the love of her life and b, that I am the one to dress her for that special day just as I did for world championships, national championships, and Olympics," she said. "It's just the ongoing saga of our friendship."

For more on Kwan's wedding, including photos and details from the ceremony, pick up a copy of next week's PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.

A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.

"It's a balancing act" between physical health and financial well-being, she said.

An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers — more than 40 million people — who don't have it.

Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competitive mayoral race.

Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists — some in surgical masks — rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point.

The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. "There's people who say, 'OK, I get it — you don't want your server coughing on your food,'" she said.

Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and "living wage" laws, and a public health priority.

But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small operations. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy.

Michael Sinensky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, "we're in survival mode."

"We're at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives," said Sinensky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can't work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn't include tips.

Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness.

"Right now, where companies' incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down," said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary.

Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia's mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011.

In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer's proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn't include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless.

The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women's groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote.

Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn't think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season.

While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn't be reached by telephone.

"I needed work," Palaguachi said after Friday's City Hall rally, but "I needed to see the doctor because I'm sick."

___

Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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BOJ easing spurs volatile yen, Nikkei trading; Asian shares up

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Tuesday amid optimism over the global growth outlook, but bold easing measures from the Bank of Japan failed to lift Tokyo equities and the yen rebounded from a brief sell-off as investors digested the central bank's actions.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> rose 0.4 percent to a fresh 17-1/2-month high, while Australian shares <.axjo> ended little changed after touching a 20-month high earlier in the session. Hong Kong shares <.hsi> hovered around a 19-1/2-month peak and onshore China markets were on track to gain for a fourth-straight day.

The spotlight in Asia fell on the BOJ, which on Tuesday doubled its inflation target to 2 percent and adopted an open-ended commitment to buy assets, surprising markets that had expected another incremental increase in its 101 trillion yen ($1.12 trillion) asset-buying and lending program.

"A stronger Japan is good for the global economy," said Jeremy Friesen, a commodities strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. He added the stimulus plan will be more positive for base metals than energy as Japan will be building infrastructure that will boost demand for metals such as zinc and copper.

The reaction in Japanese markets, however, reinforced market perceptions that the BOJ could have done more.

The yen rebounded from brief losses and the Nikkei turned down from an initial surge as investors digested the details, including the fact that the new scheme for additional purchases will only come into effect next year. Several analysts were also of the opinion the BOJ could have taken more steps, such as scrapping the 0.1 percent floor for short-term interest rates and extending the duration of bonds the central bank buys.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei average <.n225> surged as much as 0.8 percent before giving up all gains to end down 0.4 percent. Tokyo shares have been rising in tandem with the yen's slide against major currencies on expectations for bolder BOJ steps. The Nikkei tumbled 1.5 percent on Monday after investors booked profits from the index's 2.9 percent rally on Friday. <.t/>

The dollar rose as high as 90.18 yen, but was last trading down 0.6 percent at 89.09 yen. It touched a fresh 2-1/2-year high of 90.25 on Monday. The euro rose to 120.18, before falling 0.5 percent to 118.88 yen. The euro hit its peak since May 2011 of 120.73 on Friday.

"The BOJ increase in asset purchases is only commencing in 2014. So no strong immediate increase in easing," said Jeffrey Halley, FX trader for Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore, noting stop-loss selling under 89.50 yen added to the dollar's drop.

Hiroshi Maeba, head of FX trading Japan at UBS in Tokyo, said: "It was more or less within market expectations and was not disappointing. But it also didn't top expectations because there was speculation that the BOJ would do all it can, including removing the 0.1 percent floor on short term interest rates."

Still, there is a perception in markets that even if investors rooting for much bolder BOJ steps cut their yen short positions in disappointment over the outcome, the yen's rebound was likely to be limited relative to its 13 percent decline against the dollar and a 20 percent drop versus the euro over the past two months. Such views were fed by expectations the BOJ will continue to aggressively ease monetary policy to drive Japan out of years of deflation and support the economy.

Brent crude rose 0.3 percent to $112.07 a barrel as the BOJ's latest easing action added to the recent positive data from the United States and China, while growing confidence in the strength of China's economic recovery pushed London copper up 0.7 percent to $8,111.75 a metric ton.

European markets are seen subdued, with financial spread-betters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open flat to down as much as 0.1 percent. U.S. stock futures were up 0.2 percent, pointing to a firm Wall Street start. <.l><.eu><.n/>

General market sentiment was also supported by signs of a compromise to avert a U.S. fiscal crisis.

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have scheduled a vote on Wednesday on a nearly four-month extension of U.S. borrowing capacity, aimed at avoiding a fight over the looming federal debt ceiling and shifting their negotiating leverage for spending cuts to other fiscal deadlines.

Gold was up 0.2 percent at $1,693.31 an ounce on the fresh round of easing from the BOJ.

($1 = 89.7950 Japanese yen)

(Additional reporting by Masayuki Kitano and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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IHT Rendezvous: Bringing (Insert Name Here) Home for the Holiday in China

BEIJING — In China’s inventive marketplace, where there’s demand, there’s supply; unattached women can even rent a boyfriend over the approaching Chinese New Year to keep the relatives quiet.

With that holiday, the country’s biggest, looming in February, young men are offering themselves on Taobao.com, China’s eBay, as companions for women heading home and dreading being grilled by older relations about their love life and marriage prospects. So entrenched is said grilling, in a society where women are expected to marry in their mid-20s and anyone over 30 is definitively “on the shelf,” that there’s even a phrase for it: “cuihun,” or “urge marriage.”

As for the boys, just as in life, there are all sorts.

On Taobao, this man, who didn’t give his name but supplied a photograph, said he was born in 1991, was a B.A. student, an extrovert, 170 centimeters (5 feet 6 inches) tall and 60 kilograms (132 pounds), offered a relatively simple list of extra services.

“Boyfriend for rent, 300 yuan a day, holding hands and hugs free, appropriate kisses 50 yuan, talking to old people 30 yuan an hour, others we’ll talk about it when we meet,” his post said. Also: “accommodation and transport costs paid by the woman.”

Often, services are worked out in minute financial detail. This man, charging 800 renminbi ($128) a day, had a long list of extras: shopping (15 renminbi per hour or 150 a day, minimum two hours); chatting (10 renminbi an hour or 100 a day); watching a movie (10 renminbi an hour, double for horror films); attending parties (20 renminbi an hour, will not go to dangerous places). And he charges for drinking, based on the spirit content (drinking alcohol is de rigueur for men at festive banquets): 100 renminbi per 100 milliliters of white spirits, 50 renminbi for 100 milliliters of red wine, 20 renminbi for 500 milliliters of beer.

Just in case you’re wondering if it’s all for real, or just a cruel hoax — it’s apparently true, with even people.com.cn, the racier, online version of the Communist Party-run People’s Daily newspaper, carrying a report.

Showing a picture of a young man with striking cheekbones posing romantically in what appears to be a snow flurry, but may just be artwork, a reporter for the China Economic Net wrote: “Spring Festival is approaching and young, single women must go home, to once again face their elders’ ‘urging marriage.’ Under these circumstances, quite a lot of ‘boyfriends for rent’ have quietly appeared on Taobao,” with “prices clearly marked and real photographs.”

The article gathered reactions. “There’s nothing that can’t be bought, just things that can’t be thought of,” wrote a person with the online handle Wangshen 777.

“This money is earned too easily!” wrote someone with the name Xiao Zhang.

Citing “people in legal circles,” the article warned, “people are not goods and these kind of rentals violate public order and good customs. Neither the buyer nor the seller can receive legal protection and any agreements reached between them are not valid,” it said, warning that there could be significant “security risks” in such a situation.

Underlying this all is the massive pressure young Chinese women face to marry as early as possible, the result of a strongly patriarchal society, feminists and sociologists say.

In a recent report, “Single and Over 27: What the Chinese Government Calls ‘Leftover Women,’ ” Public Radio International reported on Huang Yuanyuan, stressed at the prospect of turning 29 without a boyfriend.

It looked at how the state and society in China stigmatize “educated women over the age of 27 or 30 who are still single,” according to Leta Hong Fincher, a PhD candidate in sociology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, who has studied “leftover women,” writing about it in The New York Times.

How did Ms. Huang feel about her birthday, asked PRI?

“Scary. I’m one year older,” she said. “Because I’m still single. I have no boyfriend. I’m having big pressure to get married.”

And so, for some women, the market provides.

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Nearly 20,000 new BlackBerry 10 apps submitted this past weekend

Research in Motion (RIMM) held a “Port-A-Thon” earlier this month to boost developer interest in BlackBerry 10. The event ended up being a huge success for the company with more than 15,000 apps submitted to BlackBerry World in less than two days. In a last chance effort to increase its app count before the launch of its new operating system, RIM held a second event this past weekend and it was even bigger than the first one. Developers submitted 19,071 apps in 36 hours, bringing RIM closer to its goal of offering more than 70,000 apps at launch. RIM is scheduled to unveil BlackBerry 10 at a press event on January 30th.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 OS walkthrough, BlackBerry Z10 pricing]

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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It's a Boy for American Idol's Danny Gokey

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

01/21/2013 at 12:00 AM ET

Courtesy Danny Gokey

Now he’s got a little Idol of his own!

American Idol season eight finalist Danny Gokey and his wife Leyicet welcomed their first child, son Daniel Emanuel Gokey, on Sunday, Jan. 20, PEOPLE confirms exclusively.

Weighing in at 8 lbs. 11 oz., Daniel arrived at 9:52 p.m. EST on his due date.

“Leyicet and I are overjoyed to welcome the new member of our family. I’m ecstatic to be a first time dad and to have a new little buddy to hang out with,” Gokey tells PEOPLE.

“Thankfully, because of what I do, it will also allow me the flexibility to spend a lot of quality time with him. I have so many exciting projects ahead this year but a brand new baby is an amazing way to get the new year started. We feel really blessed!”

The timing for their newborn couldn’t be better. Almost exactly one year ago, Gokey, 32, and his model wife, 26, tied the knot in a low-key affair in Florida on January 29. Six months later, they shared the happy news of their pregnancy.

This is the second marriage for Gokey, who tragically lost his first wife Sophia in 2008 after a routine surgery for congenital heart disease. Gokey now runs the Sophia’s Heart Foundation, which helps homeless families, in her honor.

– Kevin O’Donnell

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Asian shares retreat from highs, yen volatile before BOJ

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares pulled back from multimonth highs on Monday, while the yen firmed after touching a new low in choppy trade ahead of a Bank of Japan policy decision that is expected to deliver bold monetary easing measures.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> edged down 0.2 percent despite pockets of strength in Australia, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The index briefly renewed a 17-1/2-month high touched on Friday following a rebound in global equities late last week on upbeat U.S. and Chinese data, as well as signs of progress in U.S. budget talks.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ended Friday at five-year highs on a solid start to the quarterly earnings season. U.S. markets are closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

"Asian markets are mixed with no dominant theme in place in a fairly quiet start to the week," said Stan Shamu, market analyst at IG Markets. "There hasn't been any economic data to go by in the region and therefore we've had to rely on leads from the weekend for some direction."

Australian shares <.axjo> inched up 0.1 percent to a 20-month high and Hong Kong shares <.hsi> hit a fresh 19-1/2-month peak, but underperformance in smaller bourses, such as a 2.3 percent slump in Malaysian shares <.klse>, dragged the pan-Asian index. A stronger local currency hurt exporters and weighed on South Korean shares <.ks11>.

European markets are seen tracking Friday's U.S. markets higher, with financial spread-betters predicting London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> would open up as much as 0.4 percent. <.l><.eu/>

The BOJ's two-day policy meeting which concludes on Tuesday drew the attention of traders from several markets, with the South Korean won's gains against the yen pulling the exporter-heavy Kospi stock index <.ks11> down 0.1 percent, while gold rose 0.4 percent on expectations for aggressive BOJ easing.

Under growing political pressure to pursue bolder measures to beat deflation, speculation over the BOJ's options ranged from an open-ended commitment to buy assets until a 2 percent inflation target is achieved to simply boosting its asset buying schemes.

"There is attention on the Bank of Japan, which is really being pressured to embark on some very precious metals-friendly policy," said a Hong Kong-based trader. Tokyo's benchmark gold matched a record of 4,911 yen a gram on Monday.

Early on Monday, the dollar touched a fresh 2-1/2-year high of 90.25 yen, and the euro rose to a high of 120.27 yen, near its peak since May 2011 of 120.73 hit on Friday.

But the yen clawed back some of its losses against the dollar and the euro as traders locked in gains ahead of the outcome of the BOJ meeting. The dollar slipped back to a low of 89.42 yen and was last trading at 89.57 yen, while the euro also fell to a low of 119.08 and last traded at 119.27 yen.

"Profit taking pushed the dollar and the euro down against the yen but short covering lifted them off their lows. Trading is thin and quite volatile. I don't think there will be any clear direction until the BOJ decision," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.

Saito said "sell the fact" behavior could push the dollar down about 1 yen, but a serious disappointment on the BoJ outcome was unlikely.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average <.n225> tumbled 1.5 percent as investors booked profits from the Nikkei's 2.9 percent rally on Friday, its biggest daily gain in 22 months. The Nikkei posted a 10th straight week of gains, its longest since 1987. <.t/>

Many investors largely keep short position on the yen.

"We expect the door for further easing will likely be left open irrespective of the outcome of BoJ policy meeting, either explicitly by the BOJ or implicitly through government's plan to nominate doves to replace the governor and deputy governors," Barclays Capital said in a note to clients.

Friday's data showed while currency speculators slightly cut their bets against the yen in the week to January 15, they remained overwhelmingly negative on the currency.

Asia hedge funds 2012: http://r.reuters.com/jyr35t

China GDP: http://link.reuters.com/zeq95s

Algeria's attack site: http://link.reuters.com/myn35t

Gold/USD correlation: http://r.reuters.com/ryx52s

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Oil prices took their cues from a weak consumer sentiment report in the United States, which showed a drop to the lowest in a year in January as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the country's debt crisis.

Concerns about demand overshadowed supply disruption fears, reinforced by the Islamist militant attack and hostage-taking at a gas plant in Algeria, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

U.S. crude futures fell 0.5 percent to $95.08 a barrel while Brent fell 0.3 percent to $111.55 early on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Ian Chua and Thuy Ong in Sydney and Rujun Shen in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

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