TOKYO: Japanese stocks crawled to a fresh 15-year peak on Friday after the dollar surged against the yen as upbeat U.S. data flipped expectations back in favor of an early interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The rest of Asian equity markets lagged Japan after a sharp pullback in oil prices dulled risk appetite and sent Wall Street lower overnight.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was down 0.3 percent, with South Korean and Australian shares posting light losses.
Tokyo's Nikkei <.N225> rose 0.3 percent after touching a high not seen since June 2000, helped by a weaker yen which is seen sharpening Japanese exporters' competitiveness and boosting their earnings.
The dollar was steady at 119.36 yen
Dollar bulls, disappointed earlier this week by perceived dovish signals from Fed Chair Janet Yellen, took heart again after data released on Thursday showed U.S. core inflation rose more than expected.
Robust U.S. durable goods orders also helped, with both sets of data driving Treasury yields higher and supporting the dollar.
Investors are now waiting on revised fourth quarter U.S. gross domestic product data due later on Friday for another health check of the world's largest economy.
Economists polled by Reuters expected U.S. growth in the fourth quarter to be revised down to 2.1 percent from a preliminary 2.6 percent.
"As growth in the upper range of 2 percent is the Fed's prerequisite for an early and sustained rate hike, a figure just around or below 2 percent is likely to hurt expectations for a June hike and weigh on the dollar," said Masafumi Yamamoto, market strategist at Praevidential Strategy in Tokyo.
The euro was little changed at $1.1205
U.S. crude oil posted a modest rebound and was up 1.5 percent at $48.87 a barrel
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