GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks gain, dollar drifts as traders ponder Trump tariff outlook

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO, March 26 (Reuters) - Asian stocks followed Wall Street higher on Wednesday and the U.S. dollar meandered as markets awaited clarity on President Donald Trump's trade policy ahead of a new round of tariffs next week.

Traders received some hope of flexibility from the White House after Trump said on Monday that not all levies would come on the April 2 deadline and some countries would get breaks, without providing further details.

At the same time, Trump opened a new front in his trade war with a directive for 25% secondary tariffs on any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela. That initially sent oil prices higher, but the impact was offset somewhat by relief from Black Sea maritime security deals struck by the U.S. in the war in Ukraine.

Japan's Nikkei .N225 advanced 0.65%, and South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 climbed 1.08%. Australian stocks .AXJO gained 0.71%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI added 0.25%. Mainland Chinese blue chips .CSI300 slipped 0.32%.

U.S. S&P 500 futures EScv1 pointed down 0.12% after the cash index .SPX eked out a 0.16% gain overnight.

Pan-European STOXX 50 futures STXEc1 eased 0.06%.

"There's an elevated baseline anxiety in the markets still ahead of next week's trade policy announcement from the Trump administration," said Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com.

"However, that's eased somewhat, courtesy of comments from the U.S. president about narrower and more targeted trade restrictions."

The U.S. dollar index =USD, which measures the currency against a basket of six major peers, inched 0.1% higher. That was after slipping 0.12% on Tuesday, its first losing session in about a week.

It was plumbing a five-month low of 103.19 last week, weighed down by worries that Trump's trade war could trigger a U.S. recession.

Data overnight showed consumer confidence plunged to the lowest level in more than four years this month.

The dollar added 0.39% to 150.49 yen JPY=EBS.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Wednesday that the central bank had yet to sufficiently achieve its inflation target, though he also vowed keep raising interest rates if persistent increases in food costs lead to broad-based inflation.

The yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds JP10YTN=JBTC rose to the highest since 2008.

"Governor Ueda's comment itself was balanced," said Shoki Omori, chief desk strategist at Mizuho Securities.

"His speech was cautiously optimistic, leaving a leeway to hike," Omori said. "That said, he sounded cautious on the demand side of the economy, specifically consumption."

The euro EUR=EBS slipped 0.08% to $1.0783, and sterling GBP=D3 dropped 0.2% to $1.2918.

Gold XAU= added 0.2% to $3,026. It has been meandering this week just below the all-time high of 3,057.21 reached on Thursday.

Oil prices rose, with Brent crude futures LCOc1 gaining 0.4% to $73.31 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 added 0.4% to $69.29 a barrel.