Weak U.S. data sours stock markets39; mood
Nikkei down, yen up as postBOJ moves unwind
Aussie slips on jobs miss
Lagarde, Fed speakers in focus

SINGAPORE, Jan 19 Reuters Asian stock markets struggled to make headway on Thursday, after weak U.S. consumer data stoked recession worries and nudged investors toward safe assets such as bonds, while Japan39;s yen rose as markets doubted the Bank of Japan39;s policy commitments.

MSCI39;s broadest index of AsiaPacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2 and benchmark 10year U.S. Treasury yields , which fall when prices rise, hit their lowest since September at 3.326.

Oil futures fell 1.3. European futures and FTSE futures each fell 0.5.

Japan39;s Nikkei dropped 1.4 and the yen rose about 0.7 to 127.95 per dollar, unwinding sharp moves that followed the Bank of Japan BOJ leaving monetary policy settings unchanged a day earlier.

The BOJ has pursued ultraeasy policy settings for decades in an attempt to generate inflation and growth, but markets doubt it can keep that up, and traders have been selling Japanese government bonds and buying yen to bet on a shift.

The Nikkei dip and the bounce for the yen suggest at least some investors are undeterred.

There39;s an intense amount of speculation in the market that now that the January BOJ meeting has happened without any changes … that we39;ll see something in March, said Shafali Sachdev, head of FX, fixed income and commodities in Asia at BNP Paribas Wealth Management in…