TREASURIES-Edge up in Asia, retail sales data eyed

TOKYO Feb 12 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries edged up in Asia on Friday recovering some of the losses made the previous day, but activity remained subdued ahead of reports on retail sales and consumer sentiment later in the day.

* Treasuries fell on Thursday as investors turned to riskier assets after the European Union pledged help for Greece and the U.S. government closed out a week of poor bond sales.

* Most Asian share markets were up after European leaders expressed solidarity with Greece and eased worries about a possible sovereign default. But U.S. stock futures SPc1DJc1 traded softly after Wall Street gained 1 percent on Thursday, providing mild support to Treasuries.

* While worries persist for debt-ridden euro zone economies, questions also remain on the outlook of the United States' top credit rating given its burgeoning budget deficit, said a manager of foreign bond investment group at a big Japanese financial firm.

* But the market showed little sign of those concerns emerging for now. In May 2009. investors briefly grew nervous about U.S. ratings, sending long-term yields higher.

* T-note futures TYv1 rose 4.5/32 to 117-29/32. Benchmark 10-year notes rose 4/32 in price to yield 3.710 percent US10YT=RR, down two basis points from late New York trade on Thursday.

* Thirty-year bonds US30YT=RR were up 8/32 in price to yield 4.656 percent, while two-year notes US2YT=RR were little changed in price to yield 0.868 percent.

* Analysts polled by Reuters predicted Friday's economic reports would show improvement, but any shortfall compared with expectations would come as just the latest reminder that highly indebted U.S. consumers have little strength to power the economy.

* Economists expect U.S. retail sales for January due at 1330 GMT to show a 0.3 percent rise after a 0.3 percent fall in December. The median forecast for sales excluding autos is for an increase of 0.5 percent in January after a 0.2 percent drop the previous month.[ID:nN08250310]

* Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers releases its preliminary February consumer sentiment index at 1455 GMT, which is expected to show a reading of 75.0 compared with 74.4 in the final January report.

(Editing by Joseph Radford)