Asia stocks bounce, yen ebbs amid US presidential debate

Asian shares recouped early losses on Tuesday and the dollar edged away from a one-month trough against the yen, suggesting investors judged Democrat Hillary Clinton was winning her debate against Republican Donald Trump.

Markets have tended to see Clinton as the candidate of the status quo, while few are sure what a Trump presidency might mean for US foreign policy, trade and the domestic economy.

Japan's Nikkei more than halved its losses to be down 0.4 per cent, while the dollar edged up to 100.74 yen from a low of around 100.08.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan bounced to be down just 0.04 per cent, while South Korea and Shanghai went flat.

EMini futures for the S&P 500 recouped all its losses to trade 0.35 per cent firmer.

"Markets started to call the debate for Hillary within the first 15 minutes or so, with the Mexican peso surging in what is probably its busiest Asian session in years," said Sean Callow, a senior currency analyst at Westpac in Sydney.

"The bounce in S&P futures, AUD and USD/JPY all show that investors were watching closely and didn't hesitate to declare Trump the loser."

The peso climbed 0.7 per cent and away from the all-time trough hit in recent days on concerns a Trump presidency would threaten Mexico's exports to the United States, its single biggest market.

"There's a thing called Trump thermometer," said David Bloom, London-based global head of forex strategy at HSBC.

"If you want to know who won the presidential debate, don't go to Twitter or Facebook. Just look at the dollar/Mexico peso."

Much the same goes for the Canadian dollar, which touched its lowest since March in early trade before rallying to $1.3203 on its US counterpart.

Other safe-havens also ebbed, with yields on US 10-year Treasuries rising a basis point to 1.60 per cent.

In commodity markets, oil ran into profit-taking having bounced 3 per cent on Monday as the world's largest producers gathered in Algeria to discuss ways to tackle a crude glut that has battered prices for two years now.

Brent crude slipped 27 cents to $47.08 a barrel, while US crude dipped 22 cents to $45.71.