GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks rise on vaccine hopes, eyes on U.S. payrolls

* MSCI ex-Japan rises, all major Asian indexes in black
* Shanghai copper at 6-month highs on supply fears
* Investor focus on U.S. employment data due later in the
day
* Currencies tread water

By Swati Pandey and Imani Moise
SYDNEY/NEW YORK, July 2 (Reuters) - Asian stocks tracked
Wall Street higher on Thursday although sentiment was cautious
ahead of U.S. employment data while copper prices jumped to more
than six-month highs on a better global outlook and supply fears
in top producer Chile.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of
Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.9% with all major indexes trading
higher on hopes of a vaccine for COVID-19, which has killed more
than half a million people globally and shut down the world
economy.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.4%, China's blue-chip index
.CSI300 added 0.6% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index .HSI
climbed 1.7%.
E-mini futures for the S&P 500 EScv1 were flat.
U.S. employment figures due later in the day are expected to
show if the world's largest economy can sustain its fragile
recovery as new COVID-19 cases accelerate in several southern
states.
Economists polled by Reuters expect private employers to
show 2.9 new million new jobs June, which would follow a
surprise increase in May. Casting some doubt over that
projection, however, was a smaller-than-expected increase in
jobs seen in the ADP report on Wednesday. "A better-than-expected outcome could go some way to
settling the near-term debate that the U.S. labor market will
heal relatively quickly and justify new highs in U.S. equities,"
said Stephen Innes, strategist at AxiCorp.
Wall Street ended Wednesday higher after key economic
indicators showed a rebound in Chinese manufacturing activity as
it recovers from the pandemic while sharp declines in European
factory activity eased. Risk sentiment was whetted by a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer
PFE.N and Germany's BioNTech BNTX.O , which was found to be
well tolerated in early-stage human trials. .N
Equity investors shrugged off concerns about Hong Kong where
police arrested more than 300 people protesting sweeping new
laws introduced by China to snuff out dissent.
Those developments have raised concerns about China's
already strained relations with its major western trading
partners, particularly the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on
Wednesday that would penalize banks doing business with Chinese
officials who implement a national security law. In commodities, the most-traded August copper contract on
the Shanghai Futures Exchange SCFcv1 touched 49,570 yuan
($7,016.28) a tonne, its highest since Dec. 30, 2019.
Manufacturing activity rebounded in the United States in
June, while the factory sector in Germany, Europe's largest
economy, contracted at a slower pace and top copper consumer
China posted better-than-expected manufacturing data.
Meanwhile in Chile, where the number of COVID-19 cases have
been climbing, miner BHP BHP.AX said it would begin to slow
production at its small Cerro Colorado copper mine in the
country.
Elsewhere, oil prices eased and gold was a tad softer too
while the dollar was steady in a sign of investor caution
despite encouraging macro data. O/R GOL/
Brent crude LCOc1 slipped 6 cents to $41.97 a barrel. U.S.
crude CLc1 was off 12 cents at $39.70 a barrel. U.S. gold
futures GCcv1 was 0.12% lower, at $1,777.70.
The safehaven greenback was unchanged against the Japanese
yen at 107.45. The euro barely moved too and was last at $1.1254
while sterling GBP= was treading water at $1.2477.
That left the dollar index =USD at 97.139.

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(Editing by Sam Holmes)