London: Global stock markets were pushed higher on Friday despite an underdeveloped U.S. employment report, as optimism grows thanks to stimulus trends and slow virus virus rates and vaccine spreads.
Markets had been eagerly awaiting the U.S. jobs report for January to know whether the economic recovery is gaining or losing steam.
The report showed that the U.S. economy added only 49,000 jobs as the coronavirus pandemic continued to hamper industry, far short of analysts ’expected gain of 105,000.
Stephen Innes, Axi’s chief global markets strategist, described the report as a “double clunker” as the December figure was revised to a fall of 227,000 jobs from an initial estimate of 140,000.
However, he said it was “largely overshadowed by U.S. incentives and vaccine statement (s)” keeping investors’ attention.
Naeem Aslam at AvaTrade said the jobs report was worrying because it showed that the resilience seen in many areas of the U.S. economy no longer exists.
Patrick J. O’Hare of Briefing.com said: “The main takeaway from the report is that he will be painting the case in Washington for further encouragement. The market knows, but then again, it’s already been banking on more stimulus coming. “
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to be able to push through his $ 1.9-trillion stimulus package for the economy on boosting market confidence for weeks.
Senate Democrats pushed through in the early hours of Friday a step that will allow a stimulus package to be agreed by a simple majority vote.
Wall Street stocks added to the records early Friday on what the U.S. unrealized jobs report expected to reinforce what was wrong with President Joe Biden’s economic relief package.
The Department of Labor said the U.S. economy added only 49,000 jobs in January and reduced the number of new jobs created in November and December.
Analysts said disappointing numbers boosted Congress’ expectations of a $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package at Biden, which came on a party-line vote in the Senate early Friday but has yet to face a number of obstacles before it can be implemented.
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.5 percent at 31,210.24.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent to 3,888.95, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3 percent to 13,817.68.
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at records on Thursday, raising a rally on reduced market volatility and improving coronavirus trends in the US.
Among individual companies, Johnson & Johnson rose 1.4 percent when they applied for an emergency approval of its Covid-19 vaccine with U.S. health authorities.
The process could take several weeks, but if approved, the vaccine would be the third most authorized in the United States, after those of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
In Europe, both Frankfurt and Paris were higher in afternoon trade.
However, London reaped its gains after the U.S. jobs report announced how the pound rose against the dollar which is likely to hurt the prices of multinational shares listed on the FTSE 100 which is earning most of their income in dollars.
Hong Kong stocks ended a strong week on a positive note Friday, extending hopes-fueled global rally over U.S. stimulus talks, vaccine spreads and virus disease mitigation. The Hang Seng Index gained 0.60 percent, or 175.18 points, to 29,288.68.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.44 percent, or 15.45 points, to 3,501.86, while the Shenzhen Composite Index lost a second exchange in China 1.16 percent, or 27.52 points, to 2,353.27.
Tokyo stock also closed higher, extending rallies on Wall Street as investors wait for U.S. labor data to be released later in the day.
The Nikkei 225 indexes grew 1.54 percent or 437.24 points to finish at 28,779.19, while the broader Topix index rose 1.38 percent or 25.83 points to 1,890.95.
The U.S. market was fueled by hopes around President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finishing at high-term levels.
“Tokyo shares rose after gains from the top three U.S. indices,” Okasan Online Securities said.
“Investors are waiting for U.S. jobs data,” he said, adding that they were also cautious in afternoon trading after the Nikkei hit the 28,750 level.
In Tokyo trading, Mazda skyrocketed 18.51 percent to 960 yen after its operating profit in the third quarter exceeded market expectations.
SoftBank Group rose 3.47 percent to 9,081 yen while casualty operator Uniqlo Fast Retailing rose 1.30 percent to 92,210 yen.
Sony jumped 6.86 percent to 12,450 yen.
The dollar gained 105.54 yen in Asian trading, against 105.52 yen in New York late Thursday.
Japan’s household spending in December was down 0.6 percent, compared to the market’s expected fall of 1.8 percent, according to government data released before the opening bell.
At the same time, oil prices continued to focus on rising expectations as people return to more normal lives.
Brent North Sea reached $ 59.75 per barrel to withstand almost pre-pandemic levels.
While viral infections and deaths remain high, investors are hoping a slowdown in rates, coupled with vaccines, will soon allow governments to begin reducing mitigation measures.
On the corporate front on Friday, Chinese short video app company Kuaishou – a major competitor to TikTok – nearly tripled its initial market after a larger initial $ 5.4-billion public offering for an internet company from Uber’s May 2019 listing.
