TOKYO (Reuters) – Global stock prices rose to a 1/2-month high on Monday after data showing a rise in US employment, while US bonds were under pressure due to concerns, the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates earlier than it had indicated.
US S & P500 futures traded up 0.5%, maintaining gains made during a truncated session on Friday, although Nasdaq futures, with a lot of technology, lagged behind and traded almost flat.
In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei rose 0.8%, while MSCI’s broader Asia-Pacific stock index outside of Japan was almost flat, with China closed on sweep day. of the Tombs and Australia on Easter Monday.
MSCI’s global index was almost flat, but stood near its highest level since late February and in view of a record set that month.
The U.S. Department of Labor said Friday that non-farm payrolls increased by 916,000 jobs last month, the largest increase since last August.
This was well above the average forecast of 647,000 economists and was closer to the whisper of a million. February data was also revised upwards to show 468,000 jobs created instead of the 379,000 previously reported.
“There will be more improvements in April as restaurants have started to open. People have expected economic normalization to take place sooner or later, but their pace seems to be accelerating,” Koichi said. Fujishiro, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research.
While employment remains 8.4 million jobs below its peak in February 2020, an accelerated recovery made it hoped that all jobs lost during the pandemic could be recovered by the end of the year. coming.
The prospects of a return to full employment, in turn, raise questions about whether the Fed can deliver on its promise to maintain interest rates until 2023.
Markets have strong doubts, and futures on Fed funds are fully priced in a rate hike by the end of next year.
Many market participants also expect the Fed to consider reducing bond purchases this year, although Fed officials have said it has not yet discussed the issue.
“It will be impossible for the Fed to avoid debating volume reduction until the fall,” said Kozo Koide, chief economist at Asset Management One, noting that U.S. President Joe Biden’s infrastructure spending plan it is likely to be approved by then.
The two-year US Treasury yield rose to 0.186%, close to the eight-month high of 0.194% at the end of February.
Bond yields with a longer date also rose, with ten-year bonds at 1.725% in Asia on Monday, widening the rise that began Friday after the employment report.
Strong job data helped underpin the dollar.
The green dollar was trading at 110.57 yen, not far from Wednesday’s 110.97 year high. The euro stood at $ 1.1767.
Gold fell 0.4% to $ 1,724.70.
In cryptographic assets, ether fell 1.7% to $ 2,040.21 from Friday’s record high of $ 2,144.99. Bitcoin fell 0.9% to $ 57,704.
Oil prices fell after OPEC + agreed last week to gradually reduce some of its production cuts between May and July.
US crude oil futures fell 0.6% to $ 61.09 a barrel.
Report by Hideyuki Sano, edited by Gerry Doyle