* Support at 25-day moving average; resistance at 9,700-800
* Expectations for intervention, Fed easing support -analyst
* Fast Retailing tumbles on bleak f'cast, drags down Nikkei
By Aiko Hayashi
TOKYO, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei average edged down 0.4 percent on Tuesday, hurt by the strength in the yen but found support from expectations towards further asset buying by the U.S. Federal Reserve and currency intervention by Japanese authorities.
Japanese markets were shut on Monday for a national holiday, after falling 1 percent on Friday. A closely watched U.S. jobs report released on Friday was surprisingly weak and strengthened the case for more stimulus from the Fed.
The risk of another round of intervention to weaken the yen seemed to have grown after Japan weathered the flurry of weekend G7 and IMF meetings with hardly any criticism of its recent yen sales, but there was no sign of action on Monday.
A 7.1 percent drop in shares of Fast Retailing helped drag down the Nikkei average after the operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain forecast its first annual profit fall in four years on tough competition and higher costs.
"The yen is persistently strong, though it seems fairly unlikely that the yen would jump drastically from here because of the risk of intervention, which is a change from the pre-G7 trade when investors thought it'd be very hard for Japan to do so," said Koichi Nosaka, a market analyst at Securities Japan, Inc.
"Expectations that the Fed would ease further is a driver for weaker dollar/yen, but for stocks alone, easing both in the United States and Japan would mean more money flow and that can be a supportive factor for solid performance."
The benchmark Nikkei fell 38.22 points to 9,550.66, while the broader Topix dipped 0.2 percent to 837.95.
The Nikkei fell on Friday, but gained 2 percent on the week, its best weekly performance since mid-September, as investor confidence improved after the BOJ on Tuesday cut interest rates to virtually zero and pledged to pump more funds into the struggling economy.
Market players see the Nikkei's 25-day moving average of 9,430 as a major technical support level, while its 26-week moving average at 9,690 is seen as the next resistance.
After that, the Nikkei's next upward targets stand near its recent peaks around 9,700 hit this month and 9,800 hit in July.
On Monday, U.S. stocks drifted in the lightest trading volume of the year as few dared to place bets ahead of key companies' results later this week, including Intel Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and General Electric Co.
Friday's data showed the economy shed jobs in September for a fourth straight month as government payrolls fell and private hiring slowed..
The dollar tumbled to a 15-year low against the yen as investors concluded that Friday's weak jobs data meant the U.S. central bank at its Nov. 2-3 meeting was almost certain to pump hundreds of billions of new dollars into the economy.
In early Asia trade, the dollar traded at 82.27 yen, not too far away from a 15-year low of 81.37 hit on Monday.
Shares of exporters were mixed, with Sony Corp falling 0.6 percent to 2,627 yen and Canon Inc rising 0.4 percent to 3,845 yen.
Fast Retailing lost 7.1 percent to 11,510 yen. The firm, which wants to be the world's No. 1 clothing retailer within 10 years, expects operating profit to slump 14.3 percent to 113.5 billion yen ($1.38 billion) in the year ending Aug. 3, 2011.
Shares of Oki Electric Industry Co tumbled 17.6 percent to 61 yen after the telecoms equipment maker said it now expected to post an annual net loss of 28 billion yen as it cuts jobs and takes other restructuring measures. (Editing by Joseph Radford)