RPT-GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares subdued, gold supports Aussie dlr
* Asian shares subdued but underpinned by U.S. retail data
* Aussie dollar holds gains spurred by gold price rise
* China shares give up early gains
* Markets wary ahead of U.S. employment report (Repeats to more subscribers)
By Susan Fenton
HONG KONG, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Asian shares drifted on Friday, underpinned by encouraging U.S. retail sales but cautious ahead of a U.S. payrolls report, while the Aussie dollar held gains spurred by a spike in gold prices.
China shares faltered after Thursday's gains, which came after reassuring remarks from a top securities regulator raised hopes for policy support for the sagging market. The Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC eased 0.3 percent, after surging 4.8 percent in the previous session.
Better-than-expected U.S. retail sales helped Asian share markets generally, after boosting the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI by 0.7 percent, but a rally in gold prices to nearly $1,000 an ounce indicated investors may be becoming more risk averse amid a still uncertain global economic environment.
Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher, in remarks published during early Asian trade, said the U.S. economy was set for a long period of slow growth and unemployment would remain "uncomfortably high" for some time. [ID:nNYS005381]
"We are likely to see a prolonged period of sluggish economic performance and uncomfortably high unemployment as businesses reallocate capital and labour to fit the new economic landscape," Fisher said.
The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks traded outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.5 percent.
In Japan, the second-biggest brokerage Daiwa Securities (8601.T) tumbled 5.2 pct on news it plans to buy out Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), the country's third-largest bank, from their investment banking joint venture [ID:nBNG447046].
Daiwa helped push Japan's Nikkei index .N225 down 0.2 percent, but exporters including electronics parts maker Kyocera Corp (6971.T), which was up 1.5 percent, were supported by the U.S. retail sales data and Japanese capital expenditure data for April-June, which suggested the worst of the decline in capex spending may be over [ID:nT235879].
The Aussie dollar AUD+ rose to $0.8401 in the wake of gold's overnight rally to nearly $1,000 an ounce and a rise in Australian share prices.
Shares of Australian gold miners benefited from the higher gold price, helping push Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO up 0.5 percent.
HYNIX SLUMPS
Korean stocks fell 1 percent, with Hynix Semiconductor Inc (000660.KS), the world's second-largest memory chip maker, slumping 6.4 percent on a downgrade by Daewoo Securities.
As markets awaited U.S. payrolls data for further clues on the health of the world's biggest economy, financial markets reflected uncertainty about the global outlook.
Fisher said it was too early to guess at the timing or pace of any U.S. interest rate rises.
The U.S. dollar, though, was quoted at 92.60 yen JPY=, bouncing from a low of 91.92 on Thursday, while the euro EUR= hovered at $1.4252, slipping from a peak of $1.4348 after the European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold on Thursday and warned against an early withdrawal of fiscal stimulus [ID:nL3374378], [ID:L3386083].
While gold prices flirted with $1,000 an ounce, NYMEX crude oil CLc1 edged up to $68.22 a barrel, from just under $68 in late New York trade. (To read a preview of the U.S. employment report, click on [ID:nN01485399]) (Editing by Kim Coghill)
