GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks near 2-year high as virus treatment hopes lift mood

* MSCI AxJ index inches higher, close to 2-year peak
* Nikkei +1%, ASX 200 +0.8%
* Dollar steady as Powell speech awaited
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4

SINGAPORE, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Asia's stock markets opened
higher on Tuesday following a Wall Street rally driven by
vaccine hopes, while the dollar found some support ahead of a
key central bank speech.
Also supporting the mood were statements from both China and
the United States saying top-level trade representatives had
held constructive talks over the future of the Phase 1 trade
deal. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.3% to its highest since early January and
sits just a fraction below a two-year high.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 opened 1% higher and banking stocks
led Australia's S&P/ASX 200 .AXJO up 0.8%. Futures pointed to
a steady open in Hong Kong HSIc1 and China SFCc1 . S&P 500
futures ESc1 rose 0.3% in Asia.
Markets worldwide were boosted when U.S. regulators on
Sunday authorised the use of blood plasma from recovered
COVID-19 patients as a treatment option, helping the S&P 500
.SPX 1% higher to another record close overnight. .N
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's move was hailed by
President Donald Trump. Shares of AstraZeneca AZN.L also rose
on a Financial Times report that the U.S. government was
considering fast-tracking its experimental vaccine. That seemed to overshadow a rise in coronavirus cases in
Europe and the first documented case of human re-infection with
COVID-19, where a man in Hong Kong caught the virus again some
four months after first being infected. Later on Monday top U.S. infections diseases expert Anthony
Fauci also told Reuters that rushing out vaccines could
undermine trials of other promising candidates.
In currency markets, the dollar, which has been sensitive to
sentiment in equity markets edged higher, defying pressure from
a gain in stocks that often leads investors to sell dollars for
riskier currencies. FRX/
Investors now await a Thursday speech from Federal Reserve
chairman Jerome Powell and expect he might address the Fed's
future approach to inflation and allow it to run hotter than 2%
to make up for years of undershooting.
The dollar also found support from an overnight rise in
yields, which extended by a whisker on Tuesday as the yield on
benchmark U.S. government 10-year debt US10YT=RR edged up to
0.6590%. That kept the euro EUR=EBS to $1.1795 and the Aussie
AUD=D3 at $0.7171 in Asian morning trade.
In commodity markets oil clung to overnight gains after
storms disrupted U.S. production. Brent crude futures LCOc1
were steady at $45.13 a barrel and U.S. crude CLc1 dipped 0.3%
to $42.50 a barrel.
The firmer dollar held gold XAU= to $1,929 an ounce. A
light data calendar in Asia has investors looking to Australian
payrolls figures ahead of German's IFO business survey due at
0800 and U.S. consumer confidence data at 1400 GMT.