Asian stocks track Wall St, US jobs in focus

HONG KONG: Asian markets rose yesterday, with Tokyo largely recovering from initial losses as expectations of a US interest rate rise and talk of more Japanese monetary easing pushed the yen down against the dollar.

After Monday’s sell-off across most markets, fuelled by the prospect of higher US borrowing costs, investors returned to buying -- buoyed by a rally on Wall Street as fresh data indicated improvement in the world’s top economy.

Bets on a rate rise this year have soared after Federal Reserve boss Janet Yellen said last week at the Jackson Hole symposium of central bankers that “the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened in recent months”.

Attention now turns to the release on Friday of the US jobs report, seen as a guide to whether the Fed will move sooner rather than later.

“Without question, jobs day is always a monthly highlight, but given the Federal Reserve board’s tilt at Jackson Hole, it plainly appears it will take a big surprise to derail a 2016 Fed hike expectation at this point,” Stephen Innes, senior trader at OANDA, said in a note.

“Investor odds of lift-off are hovering near 70% for December and Friday’s jobs data will offer more information about the probability of a hike in September than anything else.”

The dollar rose to 102.42 yen from 101.88 yen in New York, with the Japanese unit also dragged down by comments from the country’s top central banker suggesting a further loosening of monetary policy.

The weaker yen could not help Japan’s Nikkei index extend Monday’s more than 2% rally, and it ended down 0.1%.

However, Hong Kong rose 0.9%, while Shanghai ended up 0.2%, Sydney gained 0.2% and Seoul rallied 0.4%. There were also gains in Singapore, Taipei and Wellington.

In early European trade London dipped 0.1% but Frankfurt and Paris each rose 0.4%.

Shares in New York ended well up after the Commerce Department reported US consumer spending saw a healthy rise in June, indicating third-quarter economic growth will be strong.

“The rate hike to some extent is priced in,” Logan Best, vice president for securities trading at INTL FCStone Financial, told Bloomberg News.

Oil prices edged up slightly but made little inroads into the sharp losses suffered Monday on the back of the stronger dollar, which makes the commodity more expensive for buyers using weaker currencies.