HONG KONG, Sept 5 (Reuters) Asian stocks climbed on Wednesday, scaling fresh one-month highs as tec

HONG KONG, Sept 5 (Reuters) Asian stocks climbed on Wednesday, scaling fresh one-month highs as technology shares rose in line with their U.S. peers on an upbeat outlook for the sector, while the dollar held firm after Wall Street's rally.

Investors also bought energy stocks such as Woodside Petroleum following a jump in U.S. crude to above $75 a barrel as forecasts of more storms in the Atlantic raised concerns about supply disruption in the region.

Also shoring up sentiment, data on Tuesday showed U.S.

manufacturing expanded in August, albeit at a slower pace than in July.

That helped ease fears that the world's biggest economy may be headed for a recession, but also kept alive hopes of a U.S.

interest rate cut this month.

By 0045 GMT, MSCI's measure of Asia Pacific stocks excluding Japan had risen 0.6 percent to levels last seen on Aug. 1, while Tokyo's Nikkei average added 0.5 percent.

This followed gains of 0.7 percent for the U.S. blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial average and 1.3 percent for the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index, which reopened for trade after the Labor Day holiday on Monday.

"It's comforting to see that global markets continue their recovery, and that should be a positive factor today," said Choo Hee-yeop, deputy general manager of asset management strategy at Korea Investment and Securities.

Asian technology stocks also rose in line with their U.S. peers thanks to ongoing buzz surrounding sector bellwether Apple Inc, which is expected to unveil new iPods this week.

Samsung Electronics put on 1.2 percent, flat screen maker LG.

Philips LCD added 4.4 percent and Sony, which announced plans to spin of its finance business late on Tuesday, gained 4.3 percent.

Hyundai Motor rose 3 percent after the South Korean automaker reached a tentative wage deal with its unionised workforce, averting a strike.

Toyota Motor edged up just 0.3 percent, slightly underperforming the Nikkei, after the automaker posted a near 3 percent decline in U.S. sales for August. But it was still on track to overtake Ford as the No. 2 automaker in the United States this year.

ON THE MEND The MSCI index is now up about 19 percent from a five-month trough hit on Aug. 17, and just 5 percent below its all-time high struck on July 24.

Financial markets have been recovering since the Fed slashed a key bank lending rate at a rare inter-meeting move on Aug. 17 to help address fears of a credit shortage stemming from the U.S.

subprime mortgage crisis.

Expectations now are that the central bank will lower its benchmark fed funds rate at the Sept. 18 meeting.

While the underlying market tone has turned positive, there is still wariness ahead of a flood of U.S. data due this week including the influential non-farm payrolls on Friday.

That caution was seen keeping the major currencies stuck in a range in Asian trade.

The dollar was little changed from late U.S. trade at around 116.26 yen while the euro edged up to $1.3620. Against the yen, the single currency also firmed slightly to 158.36 yen "Investors are hesitant about taking big bets ahead of important U.S. economic data including Friday's jobs report and a slew of rate decisions from central banks," said a senior trader at a Japanese brokerage.

The Australian central bank left interest rates unchanged at 6.5 percent after its meeting on Tuesday and the next focus will be on the European Central Bank, which meets to set interest rates on Thursday.

Despite the Reserve Bank of Australia's widely expected decision not to move rates, the Aussie touched a fresh one-week high near 82.85 cents.

Strength in stocks weighed on safe-haven Japanese government bond (JGB) prices, pushing the yield on the 10-year JGBs up 1.5 percent to 1.66 percent.

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