Singapore, April 10 (BNA): Asian stocks rose, while the dollar started the week in full swing after US jobs data indicated a tight labor market, raising expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again at its meeting. next month.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.12%, while Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.5%. Australian, Hong Kong and European markets are closed due to Easter.
E-mini futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.02%, while the price-sensitive Nasdaq is preparing to open lower with the electronic Nasdaq 100 down 0.25%, Reuters reports.
Chinese stocks fell on Monday, with the benchmark CSI300 down 0.32%, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.16% amid escalating geopolitical tensions over the Taiwan Strait.
US Labor Department data on Friday showed that non-farm payrolls increased by 236,000 jobs last month, close to the 239,000 expected by economists in a Reuters poll.
The closely watched report also showed that annual wage gains slowed but remained too high to match the US central bank’s 2% inflation target.
Mansoor Mohiuddin, chief economist at the Bank of Singapore, said the labor market remains too tight for the Fed to bring inflation down to its 2% target without further interest rate increases.
Investors predict that the failure of US banks last month will force the Fed to cut interest rates, but officials warn that steady inflation will make the Fed unlikely to ease policy this year.
The two-year US Treasury yield, which is usually in line with interest rate expectations, fell to 3.951%, after closing at 3.993% in Friday’s shortened trading session. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 3.372%.
A closely watched part of the US Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on the 2- and 10-year Treasury notes, seen as an indicator of the economic outlook, was at -57.7 basis points. This curve has been reversed since July last year and a recession is usually expected.
In the currency market, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.225% to 102.25, pulling away from a two-month low of 101.40 that the index touched last week.
The euro fell 0.06% to $1.0891, while the pound sterling slipped at $1.24, down 0.10% on the day.
The yen fell 0.41% to 132.69 per dollar as new BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda took over from Haruhiko Kuroda. Ueda, whose term began on Sunday, will hold his inaugural press conference at 1015 GMT on Monday.
Spot gold fell 0.8% to $1,992.35 an ounce. US gold futures fell 0.95 percent to $1,992.80 an ounce.
US crude fell 0.09 percent to $80.63 a barrel, and Brent crude was at $85.00, down 0.14 percent during the day.
ZHB