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* Asian stock exchanges: tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* Inventories decreased after Friday's mixed Wall Street performance
* Dollar supported by US job report stronger than expected
* Chinese markets are closed all week for Lunar New Year
By Shinichi Saoshiro
TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Asian stocks edged four-month highs on Monday after a mixed performance on Wall Street at the end of last week.
The broadest MSCI index of Asia-Pacific equities outside Japan remained almost unchanged. He had recorded a four-month high on Friday and an increase in the number of his peers in the world.
Trade was moderate, with many markets in the region closed for the Lunar New Year. Chinese financial markets are closed all week, while those of South Korea are closed until Thursday.
Hong Kong Hang Seng, which only trades for half a day, edged up 0.2%.
Japan's Nikkei added 0.5%.
On Friday, on Wall Street, the optimism sparked by a surge in January in the US was offset by the weaker-than-expected outlook of Amazon.com Inc., which worsened retail stocks. The Dow rose 0.26% while the Nasdaq lost 0.25%.
"The key points for the markets this week will be the way in which the remaining financial results of US companies will be published and their consistency with recent optimistic data," said Junichi Ishikawa, currency strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo.
"While business profits and fundamentals remain critical, political developments, including the trade situation between the US and China, remain potential risk factors," he said.
A US Department of Labor report released on Friday said the non-farm wage bill had risen 304,000 jobs stronger than expected last month, the largest increase since February 2018.
This report, combined with better-than-expected ISM manufacturing activity figures for the month of January, underscored the underlying strength of the world's largest economy.
"After last week's risk appetite, the pulse of data and the tone of the Fed's speakers will be important. For the Goldilocks market to continue, we need to find a delicate balance between improving data and still neutral central banks, "wrote ANZ strategists.
Global stock markets performed well last week after the US Federal Reserve promised to be patient with a further rise in interest rates, signaling that the tightening cycle could end.
Friday's robust economic data triggered a sharp rebound in US Treasury bond yields, pushing up the dollar.
On Monday, the US currency was slightly higher at 109,555 yen after rising 0.6% Friday.
The euro has changed little at $ 1,1456 after being pulled from a high of $ 1,1482 on Friday.
The Australian dollar remained stable at 0.7244 USD after slipping 0.4% in the previous session.
The 10-year US Treasury benchmark was 2.686% after climbing nearly 6 basis points on Friday, moving away from the four-week low of 2.619% recorded earlier last week.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures extended the hike on Friday and rose 0.3% to $ 55.42 a barrel.
On Friday, WTI futures had risen 2.7% on the optimistic employment report in the US, indicating that Washington's sanctions on Venezuelan exports have tightened supply and that data show that American drillers have reduced the number of oil rigs. (Edited by Richard Borsuk & Kim Coghill)
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