*

Trump signaled some flexibility on levies ahead of April 2

deadline

*

But also slapped new 25% levy on buyers of Venezuelan oil

*

Oil rises as tariff concerns overshadow Black Sea maritime

security deals

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 on 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 advanced 0.35%, and South Korea's

KOSPI rose 0.37%.

Australian stocks gained 0.76%, with

softer-than-forecast consumer price data providing a bit of

additional support. The Australian dollar eased 0.1% to

$0.6298.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.8%. Chinese blue

chips were flat.

U.S. S&P 500 futures pointed 0.08% higher after the

cash index eked out a 0.16% gain overnight.

"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, which measures the currency

against a basket of six major peers, inched 0.07% 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 0.16% to 150.16 yen. Bank of

Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Wednesday that the central

bank had yet to sufficiently achieve its inflation target,

signalling a potentially slower pace of interest rate hikes.

At the same time, the yield on 10-year Japanese government

bonds rose to the highest since 2008.

The euro slipped 0.09% to $1.0782, and sterling

drooped 0.1% to $1.2931.

Gold edged slightly lower to around $3,019. 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 gaining

0.3% to $73.27 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate

crude futures added 0.4% to $69.28 a barrel.

(Reporting by Kevin Buckland; Editing by Muralikumar

Anantharaman)