Stock Market Today: Asian Stocks Advance Ahead of US Jobs Report

Asian stocks rose mostly on Friday ahead of a report on the US labor market, while several key markets including Tokyo and Shanghai were closed for holidays.

US oil prices and futures rose.

The Japanese yen strengthened slightly against the US dollar, amid signs of strong central bank intervention to contain the dollar’s advance.

Financial newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that estimates show the government spent about 8 billion yen (about $50 billion) this week in an attempt to prevent the yen from falling further against the dollar.

The weaker yen helped boost the prices of imported goods, a factor underlying the Bank of Japan’s recent decision to abandon its negative interest rate policy and raise its benchmark rate to zero, to 0.1%, a from a long-standing level of minus 0.1%. It could raise rates further, said Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics in a commentary, even if its 2% target is not met.

“Although the economic case for preventing the yen from falling is much weaker, the Ministry of Finance appears to have responded with an even more forceful round of currency interventions this week than two years ago,” Thieliant said.

While a weak yen could be a boon for Japanese companies that earn much of their revenue abroad, significant changes in the foreign exchange market could wreak havoc on business planning, and a sharply weaker yen also raises the costs of oil and other imports. vital commodities.

The dollar traded at 153.15 on Friday, down from 153.65 late on Thursday. The euro rose to $1.0735 from $1.0727.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.7% to 18,518.64, tracking gains on Wall Street. News of new measures taken by Chinese leaders to boost the economy helped boost buying in technology stocks.

E-commerce giant Alibaba rose 3.9% and rival JD.com rose 5%. Baidu advanced 4.2%.

S of Australia&OP/ASX 200 gained 0.6% to 7,629.00 and the Kospi in Seoul fell 0.3% to 2,676.63. Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.5%.

India’s Sensex fell 0.9% to 73,952.37.

On Thursday, S.&OP 500 rose 0.9% to 5,064.20, a day after swinging sharply when the Federal Reserve said it is likely delaying interest rate cuts but does not plan to increase them. This more than halved the week’s drop.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9% to 38,225.66 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.5% to 15,840.96.

On Friday, the U.S. government will release a report on how many jobs employers created last month, one of the most anticipated economic updates each month.

Economists expect this to show a slowdown in hiring.

A report published Thursday showed that fewer U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than economists had expected. It’s the latest sign that the job market remains solid despite high interest rates.

A separate, potentially more disappointing report suggested that growth in U.S. workers’ output per hour worked was weaker in early 2024 than economists expected. Meanwhile, a measure that compares labor costs to productivity increased more than expected in the preliminary report. This could put upward pressure on inflation.

Apple rose 2.2% ahead of its earnings report, which arrived after trading ended on Thursday.

DoorDash sank 10.3% after reporting a worse-than-expected loss, while Peloton Interactive went from an initial gain to a 2.8% loss after saying it would cut about 400 jobs as part of a program to save $200 million in costs annually. It also said its CEO, Barry McCarthy, is stepping down. The company’s shares fell to a record low last week.

The US economy finds itself in a difficult situation, where the hope is that it will remain strong enough to stay out of a recession, but not so strong that it will worsen the already stagnant progress of inflation.

Stubbornly high inflation readings this year prompted Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to say Wednesday that it will likely take “longer than previously expected” to gain enough confidence about inflation to cut interest rates.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil gained 17 cents to $79.12 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Lost 5 cents on Thursday.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 18 cents to $83.85 per barrel.