Asia shares rise on U.S. optimism, oil under pressure before OPEC

By Shinichi Saoshiro

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks edged up on Wednesday after upbeat U.S. economic growth data calmed investor anxiety over a deteriorating global outlook, while the Australian dollar languished near four-year lows against the dollar.

Oil prices were also under pressure as major oil producing nations failed to agree on curbs to output ahead of an OPEC meeting on Thursday.

The U.S. government upgraded its reading on third quarter gross domestic product to 3.9 percent on Tuesday from 3.5 percent reported last month. Economists polled by Reuters had expected growth would be cut to 3.3 percent.

"The gap between actual and estimated third quarter GDP was a big one," Jasper Lawler, analyst at CMC Markets, said in a note, adding that what was of increasing importance was the gap between the economy of the U.S. and the rest of the world especially Europe and Japan.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.4 percent. Mainland Chinese shares hit fresh three-year highs, helped by last Friday's rate cuts from the People's Bank of China while Tokyo's Nikkei retreated 0.1 percent, weighed by the yen's bounce.

European shares are expected to gain, with Germany's DAX and France's CAC40 seen rising up to 0.3 percent.

The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield dropped to a one-month low of 2.252 percent, as strong auction results, month-end buying and an unexpected drop in U.S. consumer confidence offset the encouraging GDP news.

That also helped the dollar put some distance from a seven-year high against the yen as investors took profits from its rally ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday.

The greenback was down 0.2 percent at 117.72 yen, pulling further away from a seven-year high of 118.98 reached the previous week. The euro was little changed at $1.2477.

"People are just squaring up ahead of the holiday," said Bart Wakabayashi, head of forex at State Street in Tokyo.

"Overnight, we got some mixed U.S. data. It wasn't shiny, but relatively speaking, the U.S. continues to be the leader," he said.

The Australian dollar hovered near a four-year low of $0.8514. The Aussie has been under pressure amid the recent tumble in the price of iron ore, Australia's key export commodity.

"The AUD sits squarely at the bottom of the G10 pack in the past 24 hours and heading into the NY close, with a fresh slide in iron ore prices, now to below $70 for the first time since June 2009, adding pressure," said Ray Attrill, global co-head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank.

Crude oil stayed under pressure after a meeting of Saudi Arabia and three other nations ahead of Thursday's closely-watched OPEC summit ended with no deal to curb crude output.

U.S. crude was down 24 cents at $73.85 a barrel, near a four-year low of $73.25 hit a little more than a week ago.

(Additional reporting by Ian Chua in Sydney, Hideyuki Sano and Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Jacqueline Wong)