Agence France-Presse
12:01 pm | Monday, August 5th, 2013
People walk by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo on Thursday, July 25, 2013. AP FILE PHOTO
HONG KONG – Asian markets were mostly down Monday after lower than expected US jobs growth sounded a warning about the recovery of the world’s biggest economy.
Investors failed to follow Wall Street, which closed last week on record highs despite job figures indicating that growth remains sluggish.
The release at the weekend of a slightly improved Chinese non-manufacturing PMI failed to give Asian stocks a boost.
Tokyo fell 0.97 percent by the break as a stronger yen weighed on the Nikkei, Sydney lost 0.25 percent and Seoul was down 0.21 percent.
Hong Kong was up 0.14 percent and Shanghai remained flat.
Markets in the region were digesting Friday’s Labor Department figures, which showed the US added just 162,000 jobs in July, well down on analysts’ expectations of a 175,000 increase. The unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent, from 7.6 percent in June.
The data will serve as an indicator of when the Federal Reserve may reign in its bond buying programme, with sluggish growth suggesting any scaling back of the massive stimulus scheme will be delayed.
Despite the disappointing figures leading to an initial dip, Wall Street saw a late surge to end the week at a record high, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up at 30.34 (0.19 percent) at 15,658.36 and the broad-market S&P 500 ending up 2.80 (0.16 percent) to 1,709.67.
China’s official non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for July came in at 54.1 in July, from 53.9 in the previous month.
A reading below 50 indicates contraction, while anything above signals growth.
The dollar fetched 98.83 yen in early Asian trade Monday, almost flat from 98.89 yen in New York Friday afternoon, but sharply down from rates around 99.50 yen in Tokyo Friday.
The euro bought $1.3275 and 131.25 yen Monday against $1.3279 and 131.35 yen in US trade.
Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equities at SMBC Nikko Securities said there was “some caution over stocks having risen too sharply” in previous sessions.
Still, “falls are likely to be limited as uncertainty has broadly receded over the global economic outlook in recent weeks,” he added.
Oil prices were mixed, with New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in September, shedding two cents to $106.92 a barrel in morning trade, and Brent North Sea crude for September rising nine cents to $109.04.
“The mixed US jobs report came in weaker than expected and that has created a somewhat bearish sentiment about demand for crude,” Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore, said.
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