Asia stocks down on consumer demand fears

By Kevin Plumberg

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian stocks outside of Japan fell on Tuesday after a landslide of lower-than-expected U.S. corporate results sparked fears of a pullback in consumer demand, boding ill for the region's exporters.

The U.S. dollar was steady after falling overnight as dealers shrugged off higher-than-expected results from the top two banks Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) and continued to be sceptical about the stability of the financial sector.

"What really matters is that we're in a bear market and there is no reason to believe that that's going to change in the near future," said Adnan Kucukalic, equity strategist at Credit Suisse First Boston. "Banks are cheap and that's a very good thing but there is no reason for you to get into them in a hurry."

In Japan, a focus on some U.S. bank results that beat forecasts and hopes for industrial companies lifted shares and shed a rare glimmer of light in Asia equity markets, which are entrenched in a bear market, down more than 20 percent from a November all-time high.

The Nikkei share average .N225 jumped 1.3 percent as trade resume after a public holiday on Monday. Shares of Honda (7267.T) rose 2.3 percent and were one of the biggest boosts to the index ahead of the company's results due on Friday.

Outside of Japan, shares in the Asia-Pacific region slid 0.3 percent, bringing year-to-date losses to 21 percent, according to an MSCI index .MIAPJ0000PUS.

South Korea's KOSPI slipped 0.3 percent, led by the country's export-dependent technology sector on fears of sharply slowing demand in the West.

Samsung Electronics stock (005930.KS) tumbled 2 percent and LG Electronics (066570.KS) was down 3.5 percent after earnings from Texas Instruments (TXN.N) and SanDisk (SNDK.O) that fell short of analysts' estimates.