SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Friday trade after overnight gains on Wall Street. Investors will also be eagerly awaiting the release of US jobs data for May.
Japanese equities led gains among the region’s major markets, with the Nikkei 225 gaining 1.2%, while Fast Retailing shares rose nearly 6%. The Topix index rose 0.22%.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.39%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.75%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific stocks outside of Japan traded 0.51% higher.
“It is premature, if not wrong, to suggest that bearish sentiment in markets may have peaked. We have argued in our daily and ad hoc publications that bouts of optimism are commonplace in a bear market,” Lavanya Venkateswaran, an economist at Mizuho Bank, wrote in a Friday note.
Markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are closed for a public holiday on Friday.
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OPEC+ increases production
OPEC and its oil-producing allies on Thursday agreed to increase production by a larger amount than expected in July and August as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupts global energy markets.
Oil prices were lower in the afternoon of the Asian session, with international benchmark Brent crude futures down 0.36% to $117.19 a barrel. US crude futures were also down 0.5% to $116.29 a barrel.
According to Amrita Sen, head of research at Energy Aspects, the market is rightly “skeptical” about the move by OPEC and its allies.
“Basically, we’ve shifted the needle in terms of actual production by about 100,000 barrels a day on average because we just don’t have enough spare capacity,” she told CNBC’s Capital Connection on Friday. “Russian production keeps going down, so the picture just isn’t going to change much.”
Overnight on Wall Street, the three most important indices in the US tore off two-day losing streaks. The S&P 500 rose 1.84% to 4,176.82. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 435.05 points, or 1.33%, to 33,248.28. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 2.69% to 12,316.90.
US May jobs data will be released at 8:30pm HK/SIN on Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect 328,000 jobs were added in May, down 100,000 from April.
currencies
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, came in at 101.748 after a volatile week so far, rising from under 101.6 to over 102.4.
The Japanese yen traded at 129.84 per dollar, weaker from levels below 128 recorded against the greenback earlier this week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7255 after recently rising from below $0.721.