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SINGAPORE, July 24 (Reuters) Asian stocks fell on Monday, following losses on Wall Street on Friday in the wake of a profit warning from Dell Inc., the world's top computer maker, that raised concern about the outlook for technology companies.

Gold fell almost $5 an ounce to a three-week low of $612.10, oil eased towards $74 a barrel, while the dollar recovered some ground lost on Friday as some argued that U.S. rates could still go higher than market expectations.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> lost 0.2 percent to 14,794.50, dragged lower by microchip equipment maker Tokyo Electron , which shed 3.8 percent, and losses at steel makers such as JFE Holdings .

South Korea's benchmark KOSPI <.ks11> shed 0.6 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng <.hsi> edged lower and MSCI's index of shares of top Asian companies outside Japan dropped 0.8 percent.

European shares are likely to follow Wall Street and Asia lower with spreadbetters in London expecting Britain's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, France's CAC 40 <.fchi> and Germany's DAX <.gdaxi> indexes to fall 3-18 points at the start of trading.

''There's not enough confidence in a recovery in earnings in the tech sector to give it good momentum, and that's why shares are being hit,'' said Jason Hwang, strategist at Woori Investment and Securities, adding that U.S. earnings have been disappointing so far.

U.S. crude oil futures eased to $74.15 a barrel, responding to diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas that has cost more than 400 lives.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting the Middle East to seek a permanent solution to the disputes in the region, called for an urgent ceasefire. Washington blames Hizbollah and its allies, Syria and Iran, for the conflict.

The dollar recovered some ground against the yen and euro , having slumped on Friday on growing expectations the U.S.

Federal Reserve could pause in its two-year monetary tightening campaign.

''Friday's move went too far and U.S. rate expectations have receded excessively,'' said Tomoko Fujii, senior currency strategist at Bank of America in Tokyo. ''We don't think the U.S. rate cycle is over yet.'' The dollar rose as high as 116.73 yen, from about 116.13 in late New York trade on Friday. The euro fell as low as $1.2625 from $1.2694 late on Friday.

Japanese government bond prices dipped as investors reasoned yields had fallen too low. The yield on the benchmark 10-year JGB rose to 1.850 percent from Friday's 1.815 percent after hitting a one-month low of 1.810 on Thursday.

''The 10-year yield below 1.8 percent is too low, not fitting the current overnight call rate of 0.25 percent,'' said Tetsuya Miura, bond strategist at Shinko Securities. ''It's not surprising to see some profit taking.'' TECH SLUMP Technology shares slumped across Asia after Dell warned on Friday that quarterly earnings would fall about 30 percent short of forecasts due to a slowdown in the computer market, dragging the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> 0.9 percent lower.

Shares in Japan's Advantest Corp. , the world's largest maker of microchip testers, lost 1.4 percent. In Seoul, shares in top semiconductor chip maker Samsung Electronics shed 1.5 percent.

In Hong Kong, computer maker Lenovo Group fell 3 percent, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. , the world's top contract chip maker, lost 3.6 percent.

On Friday, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange's semiconductor index <.soxx>, a global industry benchmark, dropped 4.8 percent.

In Tokyo, steel shares took a beating on worries that their earnings could worsen because of high oil and material costs. JFE Holdings slumped 4.6 percent and Nippon Steel declined 2.9 percent.

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. Ltd. plunged 17 percent after it said on Friday that its parent operating profit sank 49 percent for the three months to June because price increases prompted by higher material costs hurt sales.

''We can say that hopes that companies may have room to upgrade their earnings going forward have been dashed because of higher material costs,'' said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing at Jujiya Securities.

In Seoul, shares in top South Korean steel maker POSCO dropped 2.8 percent.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. shares fell 2.7 percent to a six-month low after a downgrade to ''sell'' by Goldman Sachs.

Shares in Japanese paper makers bucked the trend after Oji Paper Co. Ltd. , Japan's largest paper maker, said it would launch a bid to buy Hokuetsu Paper Mills Ltd. next month, trumping an offer by trading house Mitsubishi Corp. for about a quarter of Hokuetsu.

Hokuetsu was untraded with buy orders at 735 yen, up 15.7 percent from Friday's close.

REUTERS SBA DB1251