May 3 (Reuters) - A look at the day ahead in Asian

markets.

The dovish waves from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's press

conference on Wednesday continue to wash over world markets,

putting Asian stocks on the cusp of a second straight weekly

gain and highs not seen in well over a year.

Investor sentiment is positive and risk appetite looks strong

going into the Asian open on Friday, after world stocks rose and

U.S. bond yields and the dollar fell the previous day.

The upbeat mood may be strengthened by the first quarter results

from Apple after the U.S. close on Thursday, as the world's

second most valuable company reported a smaller than expected

decline in revenue and Chief Executive Tim Cook said he expects

a return to sales growth in the current quarter.

The regional economic and corporate calendar is light on

Friday - the Australian services PMI, consumer inflation from

Thailand and retail sales from Singapore are the highlights.

Perhaps the most important news for world markets on Friday,

apart from the U.S. employment figures for April, will come from

Tbilisi, where the Asian Development Bank is hosting its 57th

annual meeting.

Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and Bank of Japan

governor Kazuo Ueda are scheduled to hold a press conference on

the sidelines of the meeting and if they do face reporters, they

will be grilled about Japan's apparent intervention in the

currency market this week buying yen.

Japan likely intervened early on Monday and early on

Thursday local time buying yen to stem its rapid decline that

culminated in a fresh 34-year low of 160.00 per dollar.

Estimates suggest Tokyo spent just under $60 billion in the two

yen-buying forays, around the same amount used in the three

interventions over September and October 2022, the last time

authorities waded into the market.

The targeted action, when market liquidity was particularly

thin, appears to have worked, for now at least - the yen hit

153.00 per dollar on Thursday, its strongest since April 15 and

up 4.5% from that historic low on Monday.

In Asian equities, meanwhile, Hong Kong stocks go into

Friday's session at a six-month high, having leaped 2.5% on

Thursday thanks to gains in local technology, property and

financial stocks. Beijing's pledge this week to step up economic

support has helped underpin sentiment.

The Hang Seng is now up eight days in a row, its best

stretch in five and a half years. It still has some way to go to

beat that run though - in late 2018 and early 2019 the index

rose 14 days in a row, and only had one 'down' day in 22.

Mainland China markets are closed on Friday, the last of a

three-day holiday.

Here are key developments that could provide more direction

to markets on Friday:

- Australia services PMI (April)

- Thailand consumer inflation (April)

- Japan finance minister, central bank governor press

conference