GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks rise, oil churns higher on recovery bets

* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* Equities and commodities supported by recovery hopes
* Treasury rally continues, yields fall
* Dollar nurses losses as bears return to market
* Investors watching Washington after Capitol Hill riot

By Stanley White and Chibuike Oguh
TOKYO/NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on
Wednesday, tracking modest Wall Street gains, as expectations
that a vaccine will eventually win the battle against the
coronavirus fuelled recovery hopes, while tight supply
expectations pushed oil prices to a one-year high.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.45%. Chinese shares .CSI300 rose 0.34%
while South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 gained 0.04%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 .N225 rose 0.49%, but Australia's
S&P/ASX 200 .AXJO bucked the regional trend and fell 0.12%.
U.S. stock futures EScv1 edged up by 0.15%.
Treasuries extended their rally in Asian trading, which
pulled benchmark 10-year yields further away from the highest in
almost a year and caused the yield curve to flatten slightly.
Investors were betting that the incoming Biden
administration would ramp up U.S. distribution of coronavirus
vaccines, which would allow large parts of the U.S. economy to
reopen, said Peter Essele, head of portfolio management at
Commonwealth Financial Network in Boston.
"The amount of pent-up demand is slowly being unwound and
over the next year it is probably going to result in one the
strongest growth in 20 years and markets are pricing that in,"
Essele said.
"Right now, it's a race between cases and the vaccine and the
vaccine will ultimately win out and the curve will flatten out."
On Wall Street, stocks fluctuated near unchanged for the
session, not far from record highs. The Dow .DJI rose 0.19%,
the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.04% and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
added 0.28%.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 rose 0.81% to
$53.64 a barrel, reaching the highest since February after a
larger-than-expected decline in U.S. crude inventories. Brent
crude LCOc1 rose 0.87% to $57.07. API/S
Oil prices were also supported after Saudi Arabia said it
plans to cut output by an extra 1 million barrels per day in
February and March. Some investors were monitoring developments in Washington
after at least three Republicans said they would join Democrats
in a vote expected Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump
over the attack on the U.S. Capitol. With seven days remaining in his term in office, Trump faces
impeachment over accusations that he incited insurrection in a
speech to his followers last week before hundreds of them
stormed the Capitol, leaving five dead. Trump says his speech
was appropriate.
An impeachment trial could proceed even after Trump leaves
office on Jan. 20, but analysts say they don't expect any
further political turmoil in Washington to affect markets.
"Markets since the election have been quite strong because
uncertainty factor has been removed," Essele said.
Yields on benchmark 10-year U.S. government debt US10YT=RR
fell to 1.1120% on Wednesday in Asia, down from an almost
one-year high of 1.1870% reached in the previous session after a
well-received auction of new 10-year notes.
The yield curve US2US10=TWEB , which had reached the
steepest since May 2017 on expectations for big fiscal stimulus
under a new Democratic administration, narrowed slightly to 96.6
basis points.
The dollar nursed losses on Wednesday as a retreat in U.S.
yields snuffed out its recent rebound.
Against the yen JPY=D3 , the greenback fell 0.18% to
103.58. The dollar also edged lower to $1.3679 against the
British pound GBP=D3 .
Safe-haven spot gold XAU= added 0.28% to $1,860.51 an
ounce.

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