Stock Market Today: Asian Stocks Follow Wall Street on Strong US Jobs Data | Wagon Radio 720
BEIJING (AP) – Strong U.S. jobs numbers combined with modest wage gains may make a recession even more unlikely, but Asia’s economic growth slowed Monday after suggesting inflationary pressures were waning. Stocks followed Wall Street’s rally.
The Tokyo benchmark rose nearly 2%. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul also rose.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 rose 1.5% on Friday, putting traders on the verge of entering a so-called “bull market” after gaining nearly 20% in seven months.
Employers hired more people than expected in May, but wage growth slowed, according to government data on Friday. This suggests that although the economy is strong, upward pressure on inflation may be waning, reducing the need for the Federal Reserve to cool business activity by raising interest rates further.
“The market looks poised to ride last week’s uptrend as robust risk appetite finds comfort in hopes of a soft US landing,” SPI Asset Management’s Steven Innes said in a report. rice field.
Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.9% to 32,124.17, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose less than 0.1% to 3,232.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.7 percent to $19,078.22.
Seoul’s KOSPI rose 0.6% to 2616.25 and Sydney’s S&PASX200 rose 1.2% to 7232.10.
Singapore and Jakarta won. Markets in New Zealand and Thailand were closed for public holidays.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index climbed to 4,282.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.1% to $33,762.76 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.1% to $13,240.77.
Industrial enterprises, energy producers and banks rose. ExxonMobil rose 2.3% as crude oil prices rose on hopes that an economic recovery would boost fuel consumption.
The Labor Department’s monthly employment report showed wage growth slowing despite the strengthening of employment.
While this may discourage workers from keeping up with inflation, investors believe slower wage gains mean less upward pressure on inflation.
The unemployment rate also rose more than expected last month, rising to 3.7% from a 50-year low. This suggests that the job market is a bit looser, and seems to contradict employment data from another survey.
Traders largely expected the Fed to keep rates on hold at its next meeting in two weeks, following the news. If it does, it will be the first time in over a year that the Fed hasn’t raised rates.
Rising interest rates have also hit many smaller banks, partly as customers withdraw their deposits in search of higher interest rates on money market funds.
Since March, several high-profile bank failures have rocked markets, and Wall Street is looking for other possible weaknesses. Some of the most closely watched companies have rallied following the jobs data. Pacwest Bancorp, for example, surged 14.1%, narrowing its annual loss to 66.6%.
But Fed officials have recently warned that June’s moratorium on rate hikes does not necessarily mean the end of rate hikes.
In energy markets, benchmark US crude rose 94 cents to $72.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange electronic trading. It climbed $1.64 to $71.74 on Friday. Brent crude, the benchmark for international oil trading, rose 85 cents in London to $76.98 a barrel. It added $1.85 from the previous session to $76.13.
The dollar rose to 140.07 from 139.94 on Friday. The euro fell from $1.0712 to $1.0701.
https://wgnradio.com/news/business-news/stock-market-today-asian-stocks-follow-wall-st-up-after-strong-us-jobs-report/ Stock Market Today: Asian Stocks Follow Wall Street on Strong US Jobs Data | Wagon Radio 720