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30-yr Treasury yields ease from highs, but still above 5%

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Japanese 30-year yields retreat from all-time high

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Asian shares up a little after choppy Wall St

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Bitcoin holds near all-time peak

(Updates prices, adds European stock futures)

By Stella Qiu

SYDNEY, May 23 (Reuters) - Asian shares gained on Friday

as beaten-down Treasuries found buyers after U.S. President

Donald Trump's tax bill narrowly passed the lower house,

although debt worries still dominated.

European shares are similarly poised for a higher open, with

EUROSTOXX 50 futures up 0.2% and FTSE futures

0.3% higher. Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures

were both flat.

Overnight, PMI data around the globe showed U.S. business

activity picked up pace in May, which helped Wall Street rise

earlier in the session before running into selling pressures and

closing the day little changed. In contrast, disappointingly

weak activity in Europe dragged shares there lower.

The Republican-controlled U.S. House voted by a slim

margin to pass Trump's tax cut bill, which would fulfil many of

his campaign pledges, but will increase the $36.2 trillion U.S.

debt pile by $3.8 trillion over the next decade.

Treasury yields, especially at the longer-dated end, have

climbed on worries about U.S. fiscal health in the run-up to the

passage of the bill. That was exacerbated by the decision from

Moody's last week to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, citing

rising debt.

The 30-year bonds, however, did manage to find

some buyers with prices now at some attractive levels. Their

yields fell another 1.6 basis point to 5.048% on Friday, having

dropped 2.5 bps overnight to pull away from a 19-month top of

5.161% earlier in the session.

They are still up 15 bps this week.

"Maybe the certainty of getting something through has been

enough to alleviate some of the fear, panic in the market, but

as well as that, it is not unusual in big moves for there to be

a bit of overshoot," said Ken Crompton, senior interest rate

strategist at the National Australia Bank.

"There is certainly nothing in this market move or the

passage of this version of the bill that tells me there is going

to be meaningful reductions in U.S. bond issuance or this

broader concern about global bond supply."

In Asia, yields on super-long Japanese government bonds

(JGBs) also retreated from their highs. The 30-year yields

fell 5 basis points to 3.115%, after hitting

all-time highs earlier in the week, with the jump being

monitored closely by the Bank of Japan.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside

Japan rose 0.5% on Friday, which helped it erase

earlier losses in the week.

Chinese blue chips were flat but Hong Kong's Hang

Seng rose 0.6%.

Japan's Nikkei gained 0.5% as data showed

Japan's core inflation accelerated at its fastest annual pace in

more than two years in April.

In the currency market, the dollar was on the

back foot again and is headed for a weekly drop of 1.3% against

its major peers. The euro is set for the first weekly

rise after four weeks of declines, and was up 0.3% on Friday at

$1.1309.

U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on

Thursday he still sees a path to rate cuts later this year, but

noted that the outlook depends on where Trump's tariff policy

settles.

Separately, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Thursday in a

legal battle over Trump's firing of two federal labor board

members contained a line that eased, for now, worries that the

cases could open the door for the president to fire Fed Chair

Jerome Powell at will.

Bitcoin prices dipped from its record high but it was

still set for a weekly gain of 6.4% to $110,796.

Oil prices fell for a fourth straight session on the

prospect of further output increases by OPEC+ countries. U.S.

crude futures dropped 0.5% to $60.89 a barrel and were

down 2.6% for the week.

Brent also slipped 0.5% at $64.15 per barrel.

In precious metals, gold prices rose 0.7% at $3,317

an ounce, and were set for a weekly gain of 3.6%.