World News | Asian shares higher after report shows U.S. jobs resilience

BANGKOK, April 10 (AP) – Asian stocks were mostly higher on Monday after a report on Friday showed a resilient U.S. job market.

Benchmarks rose in Tokyo and Seoul, but fell in Shanghai. Markets in Hong Kong and Sydney were closed after last week’s Good Friday holiday in many countries ended. U.S. futures were mixed, with oil prices falling.

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The much-anticipated U.S. jobs report showed hiring slowed more than expected last month but remained steady.

Friday’s jobs report showed U.S. employers added 236,000 jobs last month, a slowdown from 326,000 in February and slightly below economists’ expectations. Meanwhile, wages rose 0.3% from February, in line with expectations. But year-on-year wage growth slowed to 4.2% from 4.6%.

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Asian central banks are also struggling to rein in the delicate process of curbing inflation without tipping economies into recession.

In Asian trading on Monday, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% to 27,629.25. In Seoul, the composite index rose 0.9% to 2,512.28

The Shanghai Composite gave up early gains to fall 0.2% to 3,322.58 points. Stocks in Taiwan rose, but shares in Southeast Asia fell.

Given signs of a slowing economy, the Fed faces a difficult decision whether to raise interest rates to bring down still-high inflation or hold off on raising rates.

Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary: “I suspect we are entering a period of peak uncertainty around the Fed’s next move, as investors debate whether the tightening of credit caused by financial stress will be enough to warrant a rate cut, or whether we will go further. rate hike.” .

U.S. stock markets were closed for Good Friday, as were many markets in Europe. That made the U.S. bond market one of the few to react to the latest jobs update.

The bond market’s immediate reaction appears to be tilted towards another rate hike. Not only did Treasury yields rise, but so did bets that the Federal Reserve would raise rates by another 25 percentage points at its next meeting in May.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed to 3.40% from 3.30% late Thursday. It was at 3.37 percent earlier on Monday.

A cool job market is exactly what the Fed is trying to achieve. Raising interest rates is one of the Fed’s most effective ways of curbing inflation, but it’s a notoriously blunt tool that only works if it slows the economy as a whole. That increases the risk of a recession and hurts the prices of stocks, bonds and other investments.

More data will be released this week, with the latest monthly update on prices paid by consumers due on Wednesday. Economists expect that to show inflation slowing but well above the Fed’s target.

Many economists think a recession is likely later this year. But some say the chances of the Fed raising rates are slim enough to keep inflation under control without causing a deep recession.

In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude fell 3 cents to $80.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. International standard Brent crude fell 9 cents to $85.03 a barrel.

The dollar rose to 132.69 yen from 132.16 yen. The euro fell to $1.0892 from $1.0902. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)