Asia shares rise on bets Fed may stay cautious

Asian shares rose on Tuesday, following Wall Street's lead, as investors speculated that weaker-than-expected US data could prompt the Federal Reserve to express caution this week on the timing of a future rate hike, Reuters reports.

Financial spreadbetters expected Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE to open 8 to 14 points lower, or down as much as 0.2 percent; Germany's DAX .GDAXI to open 10 to 15 points lower, or down as much as 0.1 percent; and France's CAC 40 .FCHI to open between flat and 4 points lower, as wariness over the Fed offset the cheer generated by the European Central Bank's easing programme launched last week.

"Although the ECB is giving the bulls a strong impetus to take markets higher, there’s a natural reticence to do so just ahead of the Fed meeting where they may set markets up for a June rate hike," Jonathan Sudaria, a dealer at Capital Spreads, said in a note.

US crude oil CLc1 remained under pressure from a global supply glut, after losing as much as 4 percent in the previous session to hit a six-year low. It was last down about 0.3 percent at $43.75 a barrel. Brent LCOc1 steadied, edging up 0.2 percent to $54.06.

The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to begin its two-day policy meeting later on Tuesday, and many analysts had expected the central bank to drop the word "patient" from its formal statement on the timing of its first interest rate increase since 2006. Economists polled by Reuters were almost evenly split on whether a rate increase will come in June or later in the year.

But downbeat data on U.S. manufacturing, industrial output and housing on Monday offered the Fed a reason to toe a cautious line on policy.

"We expect the Fed to drop the word 'patient' but at the same time it will say its policy will depend on economic data to keep its hand free so it can raise rates when it wants, whether it is June or September," said Shuji Shirota, the head of macro economics strategy at HSBC Securities in Tokyo.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.7 percent, after all three major U.S. stock indexes posted gains of over 1 percent on Monday.