Asian equities are taking a cue from US trading on Friday, boosted by a favourable US jobs report
The headline jobs print was solid, and inflation was a touch softer compared to expectations. As Adam pointed out in the report release, it was one of those Goldilocks reports.
Relative to expectations, the jobs growth was strong and though there was a tick up in the unemployment rate, it owed a lot to do with a jump in the participation rate for the report.
And that is actually something positive as it means there is still some slack in the labour market that is not documented and with jobs growth still posting solid numbers like this one, it's encouraging for equity investors to think that the economy can still strengthen further.
Asian stocks are enjoying the after-effects as the Nikkei is up by 1.13%, Hang Seng up by 1.53%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.51%, CSI 300 up by 0.44%. But equity markets in Australia, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia are all faring better on the day too.
And the positive feedback from risk sentiment is feeding to the FX market as well as we see that the AUD and NZD are among the top gainers so far on the day:
