Asian stocks hit record high as dollar falters

Asian stocks outside of Japan hit a lifetime high on Monday, but the dollar headed lower after a solid U.S. jobs report failed to dent expectations for another cut in U.S. interest rates.
On Friday, the dollar rose sharply and U.S. stocks gained after data showed September U.S. jobs growth of 110,000, the highest since May. August's jobs fall was reversed to a gain and July's numbers were revised up.
But the dollar was pressured again on Monday as analysts concluded the U.S. jobs market was still weakening and the Fed Reserve could cut rates again before year-end.
"The market cooled off a bit after the non-farm payrolls on their Fed easing expectations," said Markus Ammann, director of global foreign exchange at Bayerische Hypo Und Vereinsbank.
The Aussie hit a new 23-year high of $0.9023 in early trading, while the Japanese yen, which is used to fund carry trades, came under selling pressure.
The dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's value against a basket of major currencies, was at 78.34 above last week's all-time low of 77.66. After Friday's jobs data, the index had risen as high as 78.819.
Trading volumes in Asia were thinned by a holiday in Japan, and traders expected the dollar to be volatile, with markets in Canada and the United States also closed on Monday.
Traders expected the euro to be listless ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Luxembourg later in the day.
The euro changed hands at 1.4135, little changed from late Friday.
By 10:33 p.m. EDT, MSCI's measure of Asia Pacific stocks excluding Japan had risen 1.5 percent to 555.87 points, after hitting a record 556.43 earlier in the session.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.7 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended 1.7 percent higher.
Australian shares touched a lifetime high, with U.S.-focused firms such as James Hardie Industries gaining after the solid U.S. jobs data boosted optimism about the U.S. economy, while firmer base metal prices boosted mining firms. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rose as much as 1.2 percent to an all-time high of 6,684.4, surpassing its previous peak set on October 3.
"One of the concerns that investors had was whether the U.S. economy was going to slow and how far it was it was going to go down," said Tony Russell, senior equities adviser at ABN AMRO Morgans.
"So any indication that suggests that business is not going to be as bad as what they think certainly has given optimism to future earnings to companies there and that's flowing on to us as well."
Singapore's benchmark Straits Times Index rose 1.3 percent in opening trade to a new all-time high of 3,871.87 points.
Seoul shares rose to a record as LG.Philips LCD surged a day ahead of what are expected to be solid earnings results, while STX Pan Ocean rallied after UBS said it had acquired a stake in the shipping firm.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2 percent, while Taiwan's benchmark index Oil prices fell, extending the previous session's losses, as investors turned their focus to slower growth in the U.S. economy and after hurricane concerns in the Atlantic abated.
U.S. crude fell 36 cents to $80.86 a barrel in Globex electronic trading.
Gold was flat, with analysts eyeing continued weakness in the U.S. dollar. Cash gold was at $741.40/742.20, barely changed from $741.10/741.90 in New York on Friday.