Singapore - Asian stocks rallied on
Monday, lifted by Wall Street's strong performance on Friday,
while the U.S. dollar extended gains made after much stronger
than expected June employment data.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
advanced 0.55 percent while Japan's Nikkei
rose 0.7 percent.
Australian stocks were up 0.6 percent and South
Korea's KOSPI added 0.4 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1 percent, though
China's bluechip shares were flat.
On Friday, Wall Street closed higher after U.S. jobs growth
beat forecasts. However, a lag in wage increases led investors
to bet wage data would limit the extent of the Federal Reserve's
hawkishness.
The Nasdaq led gains with a 1 percent jump, while
the S&P 500 added 0.6 percent and the Dow Jones
Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent.
"Strong headline growth, amid poor wage growth, is seemingly
a perfect storm for equities," Chris Weston, chief market
strategist at IG in Melbourne, wrote in a note.
"Looking ahead, traders will continue to watch fixed income
like a hawk for further knock-on effects into foreign exchange
and equities," particularly with speeches by Fed Chair Janet
Yellen and Governor Lael Brainard due this week, Weston added.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hit a two-month
high of 2.398 percent on Friday. It was at 2.3909 on Monday.
The dollar inched up 0.2 percent to 114.155 yen
early on Monday, extending Friday's 0.6 percent jump on the jobs
data.
"The solid jobs report gives us more reason to expect the
Fed to announce that it's prepared to start trimming its balance
sheet," said Mitsuo Imaizumi, Tokyo-based chief foreign exchange
strategist for Daiwa Securities.
"By contrast, the Bank of Japan is nowhere near a policy
exit, and it's taking steps that weaken the yen," he said.
The dollar index, which climbed 0.2 percent on
Friday, was little changed at 95.992 on Monday.
The euro was unchanged at $1.14075 on Monday,
extending Friday's 0.1 percent decline.
The Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg over the weekend did not
have much impact on markets on Monday.
At the meeting, the world's leading economies broke with the
U.S. on climate policy and U.S. President Donald Trump and his
Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to work together on North
Korea's nuclear threat and bilateral trade. Trump also discussed
forming a cyber security unit to guard against election hacking
with Russian President Vladimir Putin, though he later
backtracked from that position.
In commodities markets, oil crept higher on Monday after
sliding on Friday on a report showing U.S. crude production rose
last week, just as OPEC exports hit a 2017 high, rekindling
concerns about a supply glut.
U.S. oil rose 0.8 percent to $44.59 a barrel on
Monday, making up some of Friday's 2.8 percent loss.
Global benchmark Brent advanced 0.8 percent to
$47.07, following Friday's 2.9 percent slide.
Gold inched down 0.1 percent to $1,211.40, close to
the four-month low touched on Friday as the dollar surged.