Asian Stocks Trade Higher On Upbeat U.S. Jobs Data

Asian stocks rallied at the beginning of the week. Trading activity were mostly upbeat during Monday’s session due to the positive jobs report or data from the United States over the weekend. Report from the U.S. revealed an unchanged U.S. unemployment data that did not rise over the past month.

Global stocks including those from Asia have rallied over the past week. This is due to the announcement of the agreed meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

U.S. Jobs Data Report

The U.S. Labor Department announced last Friday that an additional 313,000 jobs were recorded for the month of February. This beat most economist expectations which led to higher Asian stocks and U.S. futures by Monday. Number of employed people by a household survey had also reportedly risen by 785,000 to a record number of 155.2 million.

The construction sector recorded the highest new positions with around 61,000 followed by retail and professional businesses services with around 50,000 new positions. The manufacturing sector also added 31,000 new positions while financial activities recorded around 28,000 positions.

The Labor Department also announced that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1%. Economists initially expected unemployment rate to decline at around the same percentage. Economists also expected a nonfarm payroll growth of 200,000. 

Labor force participation rate also rose to the highest level since September last year. This balanced the unemployment rates keeping it mostly stable. On the other hand, the number of those which were not counted in the workforce was down by 653,000 slightly higher than 95 million.

Investors watched the numbers of the labor report for any signs of continued economic growth or signs of an economy close to turning into the downside as the wages growth slightly missed expectations only growing by 0.1% on the monthly basis and 2.6% on an annualized basis.

Rally In Asian Shares

The strong employment data in the U.S. pushed most global shares on Monday with stocks coming from Asia recording one of the biggest gains for the trading session. The Nikkei 225 from Japan rose by 1.6% to 21,824 while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6% to 3,326.70. 

The S&P ASX 200 in Australia also rose 1.6% to 21,824.03. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also rallied by 1.9% to 31,585. Other benchmarks in Asia including Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand also recorded gains during the day.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX added 0.8% while the CAC 40 in France rose 0.4%.

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