Asia shares waver as China slump undercuts boost from data

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TOKYO Asian stocks inched cautiously higher on Wednesday, taking their cue from Wall Street ahead of key events including Chinese economic data, a Bank of Japan policy decision and congressional testimony by the U.S. Federal Reserve chief.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS edged up 0.1 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 advanced 0.5 percent in early trade.

Greece remained in the news as Athens will vote on a sweeping austerity package to secure the funding it needs to stem its fiscal crisis and remain in the euro zone.

Ahead of that, China's second quarter gross domestic product will be the main Asian spotlight, expected to be released around 0200 GMT (10.00 p.m. EDT).

The Chinese data will be followed by the Bank of Japan's regular policy decision, likely to be out between 0230-0500 GMT, with no shift expected.

">TOKYO Asian stocks inched cautiously higher on Wednesday, taking their cue from Wall Street ahead of key events including Chinese economic data, a Bank of Japan policy decision and congressional testimony by the U.S"Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will speak at 0630 GMT.

"The market median (for China growth) is 6.8 percent. Nominal GDP however could improve a touch with the weak price environment producing a negative deflator," said strategists at Westpac.

"A steady outcome would help support sentiment after the recent volatile price action in equities," they added, referring to the savage correction that shaved about 30 percent off share market value since last month, before Beijing's support steps stemmed the freefall.

Congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday will be closely monitored for any further hints regarding the timing of a U.S.

interest rate hike, particularly after a surprise fall in U.S. retail sales on Tuesday.

Core retail sales slipped 0.1 percent, much worse than economists' forecasts for a 0.4 percent rise.

The unexpected drop backed the view that the Fed might hold off on hiking rates, which gave Wall Street a lift. All three major indexes ended higher.

The downbeat data pushed down Treasury yields, which in turn weighed on the dollar.

"Federal Reserve chief.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS edged up 0.1 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 advanced 0.5 percent in early trade"The yield on benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR was last at 2.390 percent, down from its U.S. close of 2.399 percent on Tuesday.

The dollar edged down 0.1 percent on the day to 123.32 yen JPY=, while the euro was steady at $1.1006 EUR=.

Crude futures were higher after it became apparent that a nuclear deal between Tehran and six global powers will not immediately remove sanctions placed on Iranian crude exports.

U.S. crude CLc1 was up about 0.5 percent at $53.28 a barrel.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)