Japanese stocks, dollar shine on upbeat U.S. jobs
The U.S. dollar held near four-year highs against a basket of currencies and Asian shares advanced on Monday, after upbeat U.S. jobs data eased concerns over slower global growth.
Tokyo’s Nikkei .N225 jumped 1.3 percent, while Hong Kong shares rose 0.3 percent .HSI, as pro-democracy activists scaled down protests.
Shusuke Yamada, chief Japan FX strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, noted there was heavy dollar selling at 110 yen.
“The theme in the currency market at the moment is the divergence of economic growth… But the pace of the dollar’s rally may slow down a bit from now,” Yamada said.
As the dollar rose, commodity prices came under pressure.
Gold hit a 15-month low of $1,183.51 per ounce XAU=. It last stood at $1,188.89, down 0.2 percent on the day.
Brent crude oil prices LCOc1 dropped 0.4 percent to $91.98 per barrel, threatening to fall below a 27-month low of $91.48 hit on Friday on fear of over-supply.
“My feeling is the fall in Brent has gone far enough – $90 is the break-even point for Saudi Arabia to maintain current levels of public spending,” said Tony Nunan, oil risk manager at Tokyo’s Mitsubishi Corp.
Source: Reuters- Japanese stocks, dollar shine on upbeat U.S. jobs
