* Japan shares climb as report on BOJ negative loans weakens yen
* Asia shares fall but on track for weekly gains
* European markets also poised to follow Asian shares lower
* Oil prices rise as producers take advantage of recovery to hedge
* Disappointing earnings from U.S. blue chips weigh on markets
By Nichola Saminather and Hideyuki Sano
SINGAPORE/TOKYO, April 22 (Reuters) - Asian shares slid from a 5 1/2-month high on Friday on disappointing earnings from U.S. blue chip companies, but Japanese shares surged after a media report about a possible Bank of Japan policy change weakened the yen.
Japan's Nikkei erased earlier losses to end the day up 1.2 percent, reaching an 11-1/2 week high and extending the week's gains to 4.3 percent.
The yen, which held steady against the dollar earlier in the session, slipped after a report by Bloomberg News said the Bank of Japan may consider applying negative rates to its lending programme for financial institutions.
The dollar rose 0.5 percent, buying 109.98 yen.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.8 percent, a day after it hit its highest level since early November. With that decline, gains for the week shrink to 0.4 percent.
European shares look set to follow suit, with financial spreadbetters predicting Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 will open down 0.5 percent, and Germany's DAX will fall 0.4 percent.
The Shanghai Composite index retreated 0.4 percent, extending its weekly loss to about 4.5 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slid 0.9 percent, narrowing gains for the week to 0.5 percent.
On Thursday, Wall Street suffered its first loss in four sessions on a mixed bag of quarterly reports and a warning by Verizon Communications that a strike would likely impact its bottom line.
The S&P 500, which came within striking distance of its record closing peak of 2,134.28 touched last May, lost 0.52 percent to 2,091.48.
After the bell, Google parent-company Alphabet, Microsoft, Visa and Starbucks all posted disappointing quarterly reports, sending their stocks down 4 percent or more.
Alphabet, the world's second-largest company by market capitalisation, fell more than 6 percent, taking around $32 billion off its market value.
"Essentially, global shares and commodities have been rallying since U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen had indicated a dovish stance in March," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
"But you would need more improvement in economic fundamentals for the rally to go further. The S&P 500 is quite overvalued, trading at 17.8 times the forecast profits. Disappointing earnings from hi-tech companies will surely cap the market," he said.