People walk past an office of Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo (BES) in downtown Lisbon July 30, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Rafael Marchante
TOKYO
(Reuters) – Asian stocks were mostly steady on Tuesday, halting the previous day’s slide after Wall Street rallied on upbeat earnings and relief over Portugal’s rescue of its largest listed bank, while lower bond yields kept the dollar away from recent peaks.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded little changed.
Tokyo’s Nikkei inched up 0.1 percent.
U.S. stocks rallied on Monday, lifted by Portugal’s decision to rescue Banco Espirito Santo and earnings from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Currency market focus in Asia was on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) policy meeting decision due later in the day.
With the RBA widely expected to keep rates unchanged at a record 2.5 percent, where it has been for the past year, focus was on the central bank’s take on the economy and the Aussie’s perceived strength. The currency has gained about 4.7 percent versus the dollar so far this year.
“If the RBA maintains a cautious tone, it could renew the decline in AUD but if the statement sounds more balanced the currency will extend its relief rally,” Kathy Lien, managing director for BK Asset Management, said in a note to clients.
The Australian dollar held steady at $0.9333, having bounced sharply on Monday from a two-month low $0.9275 touched last week after a surprisingly large increase in Australian retail sales.
The U.S. dollar traded little changed at 102.575 yen, well below the four-month peak of 103.15 hit last week.
The greenback was capped by a fall in Treasury yields overnight after weaker-than-expected U.S. non-farm payrolls data knocked it off the 103 threshold.
Treasury yields fell as the bond market retained its bullish tone after rallying Friday on the jobs report.
The euro was also effectively flat, at $1.3421 after being hoisted from eight-month lows below $1.34 in wake of Friday’s U.S. jobs data release.
The euro has made little further headway since Friday’s bounce, weighed by caution ahead of a European Central Bank meeting on Thursday.
In commodities, U.S. crude extended gains from Monday when it rose as market attention shifted from swelling supplies to concerns about ongoing violence in Libya and other global hot spots.
U.S. crude CLc1 gained 11 cents to $98.40 a barrel.
(Editing by Eric Meijer)