Asia stocks slip; cautious before Bernanke

Asian stocks pared declines on Friday but still rounded off a week of losses as persistent worries over whether the U.S. economy may suffer another recession kept investors dour.
The cautious tone is expected to echo in European markets as well, with major stock indices opening lower by between 0.2 to 0.5%.
Shaken by the recent run of poor U.S. economic data, investors chose to play it safe and wait for a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on how the world's biggest economy may fare in coming months.
Few expect Bernanke to suggest further monetary policy easing is on the cards to boost growth, even though some wish he would.
"What Bernanke says or doesn't say will determine our fate next week," said Don Williams, chief investment officer at Platypus Asset Management in Australia.
"Because of the sour state of the U.S. economy, some are hopeful that there will be something on quantitative easing to support a recovery."
Underscoring the darkening U.S. outlook, Friday's second estimate for U.S. growth could show the economy grew 1.4% last quarter, down from a first estimate of 2.4%.
The overall uneasy mood hurt oil prices and held the dollar near 15-year lows on the yen.
A report that Prime Minister Naoto Kan would hold a press conference later to talk about the strong yen stoked talk yet again that currency intervention from Tokyo was nigh.
That sparked a round of short-covering in Tokyo and pulled the Nikkei up 0.8%, from 16-month lows.
But elsewhere, stocks struggled. The MSCI Asia stock index outside Japan trimmed an earlier 0.3% fall and was flat by mid-afternoon.
Tech stocks were the biggest losers, in part because tepid U.S. growth usually crimps demand for consumer electronics.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest memory chip maker, lost 0.9%. Hynix Semiconductor fell 0.2%.
The MSCI Asia ex-Japan tech sub-index has ts, with the likes of Indonesia and Malaysia.
"Growth, growth, growth. That really is the theme," Mark Mobius at Templeton Asset Management, which manages $37 bln, said of emerging markets.
"Whether it's selling automobiles to consumers in China, whether it's electricity supply to consumers, all of these areas are going to be most interesting."