Asia stocks slip after U.S. jobs data

By Eric Burroughs

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian stocks retreated on Friday and the dollar edged up after a disappointingly big drop in U.S. employment prompted investors to pull back from commodities, resource-linked shares and higher-yielding currencies.

But the equity market decline across Asia was limited as the report showing that U.S. companies slashed nearly half a million jobs in June did not shake hopes that a slow recovery is under way.

The Australian dollar, whose 12 percent surge against the U.S. dollar this year has been closely tied to the four-month rally in stocks, edged up as the U.S. payrolls report had limited fallout.

Analysts at Rabobank said the U.S. jobs report was a "reality check" for investors who had become overly optimistic about how quickly the global economy could recover from its deepest recession in decades.

Oil and copper extended their slide. U.S. crude struck a one-month low and was down 27 cents a barrel at $66.46. Government bonds jumped, with the benchmark Japanese 10-year yield touching a three-month low.

"Share losses were limited as investors here did not necessarily take it as a sign of a further slowdown of global economies. Belief that economic fundamentals are near their bottom is still firm here," said Won Jong-hyuck, a market analyst at SK Securities in Seoul.

The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.6 percent and was down about 1 percent during the first three trading days of the third quarter.

In the April-June quarter, the MSCI benchmark for Asian shares surged 32 percent -- its biggest quarterly gain since 1993 -- on investor hopes that Asia's emerging economies would help lead the global economy out of the doldrums.