* Focus back on macro as earnings season recedes
* MSCI AxJ dips marginally from two-year peak
* Dollar steady as traders wait for Powell speech
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Tom Westbrook and Katanga Johnson
SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Asian stocks eased from a two-year high on Wednesday, as a mixed bag of economic data had investors a touch more circumspect about the global recovery, while oil jumped to a five-month peak owing to a hurricane disrupting output in the Gulf of Mexico.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged down 0.1% after hitting its highest since mid-2018 on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei was off 0.1%.
The U.S. dollar nursed small losses in currency trading, though moves were muted ahead of a key Thursday speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in which he is expected to outline the central bank's next steps.
A day ago, investors had been cheered by signs of progress - or at least the lack of deterioration - in Sino-U.S. trade relations. But as company earnings season wraps up, and focus comes back to economic data, the outlook is turning murkier.
Consumer confidence dropped to a more than six-year low in the United States this month, data showed on Tuesday, overshadowing a boom in new home sales.
"If you look at the macro numbers, a lot of the improvement in Q2 seems to be slowing down in momentum," said Tai Hui, Hong Kong-based J.P. Morgan Asset Management's chief market strategist in Asia.
"Central banks and governments are not really announcing anything new, and so markets are in a bit of a sideways move at this point in time."
In commodity markets oil prices hung on to overnight gains as U.S. producers closed offshore output and battened down as Hurricane Laura drives toward the Gulf coast.
Producers evacuated 310 offshore facilities and shut 1.56 million barrels per day of crude output, 84% of Gulf of Mexico's offshore production - near the 90% outage that Hurricane Katrina brought 15 years ago.
Brent crude futures sat by a five-month high touched on Tuesday at $45.95 a barrel and U.S. crude futures likewise held steady at $43.31 a barrel, though analysts believe the lift is temporary.
"As Hurricane Laura fades, oil markets will once again return to the grim reality of challenging demand growth and significant excess capacity," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Vivek Dhar in a note. "While global oil demand is expected to trend higher from here, total oil consumption isn't expected to return to pre-COVID levels until 2022."