- Asian shares remain positive while tracking Wall Street amid a quiet day in Asia.
- US NFP debacle helps Fed to defend easy monetary policies, vaccine hopes add to the market optimism.
- Covid woes in Japan, India, a light calendar test the bulls.
- WTI crude oil snaps three-day downtrend amid US pipeline concerns.
Asia-Pacific equities kick-start the week on a positive side after Friday’s US jobs report propelled American stocks. It should, however, be noted that an absence of major data/events, as well as the coronavirus (COVID-19) woes in Asia, test the market optimists.
That said, the MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gains 0.28% whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 trims intraday gains, around 0.50% by the press time of the pre-European session on Monday.
US Nonfarm Payrolls surprisingly dropped from nearly one million expected figures to just 266K jobs in April. The disappointment from the headline US jobs data defied recent squabbles over rate hike and tapering.
Following that, news that the European Union (EU) signs a key vaccine deal with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Australia’s New South Wales is up for the vaccinations from the said key drug provider seemed to have backed the risk-on mood.
On the contrary, a jump in the number of patients with severe covid symptoms in Japan and India’s struggles to tame the record infections, not to forget collapsing medical system, weigh on the market sentiment. Additionally, chatters over the US emergency after a cyberattack on the pipeline operator weigh on the market sentiment and favored the oil prices.
Elsewhere, Australia Retail Sales for March, final reading, eased below 1.4% to 1.3% but the National Australia Bank’s (NAB) sentiment figures for April came in strong and helped ASX 200 to print 1.0% intraday gains by the time of writing. Meanwhile, New Zealand’s (NZ) NZX 50 drops around half a percent as NZ Finance Minister Grant Robertson highlights possibilities of being cautious on debt.
Furthermore, Indonesia, South Korea and India were on the positive china while stocks in China trade mixed.
On a broader front, S&P 500 Futures refresh record top whereas the US 10-year Treasury yields regain 1.6% level but the US dollar index (DXY) marks a dead-cat-bounce ahead of the European session.
Read: S&P 500 Futures refresh record top above 4,200 as vaccine hopes add to post-NFP optimism
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