Asian stocks climb, oil mixed as concerns linger over US supply glut

Oil prices were mixed amid fears growing U.S. production will offset OPEC cuts. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose almost 0.5 percent, after pulling back slightly in early trade. Japan's Nikkei .N225 fell 0.2 percent. Australian shares were up 0.3 percent. They started soft and moved up on expectations the central bank would hold rates at a policy meeting, which it did. On Monday, U.S. shares indexes posted losses of as much as 0.37 percent. "The reversal in Asian shares was a little bit surprising," said James Woods, global investment analyst at Rivkin in Sydney. He attributed the changed course partly to views that Trump is now "making progress on his promises", citing progress toward repealing Obamacare. "The other part is the technical aspect," Woods said. "Things are looking positive, we're seeing positive data reports, so investors are taking the dips as buying opportunities." Republicans unveiled legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act on Monday, calling for an end to health insurance mandates and rolling back extra healthcare funding for the poor. Congressional Democrats denounced the Republican plan, saying it would hurt Americans by requiring them to pay more for healthcare, to the benefit of insurers. Trump's allegations over the weekend that he was wiretapped by his predecessor Barack Obama, without offering any evidence, also raised concerns about his ability to focus on his promised economic measures, including tax cuts and a boost to infrastructure spending. The euro EUR=EBS was fractionally higher at $1.0587, following a 0.4 percent slide on Monday after former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe ruled out standing in the country's presidential elections. On Monday, European stocks posted losses, with Deutsche Bank's (DBKGn.DE) falling 7.9 percent, the biggest drag on the FTSEurofirst 300 index FTEU3 after the German lender unveiled an 8 billion euro ($8.47 billion) cash call as part of a major reorganization. But declines were limited by merger deals. One involved French carmaker PSA Group (PEUP.PA) and General Motors (GM.N), and another was between Standard Life (SL.L) and Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L) The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against a basket of trade-weighted peers, was steady at 101.60, after Monday's 0.1 percent gain. The dollar added almost 0.1 percent to 113.98 JPY=, after Monday's 0.15 percent loss. –Reuters