Asia shares rise after US jobs data; Japan, South Korea indices hit record

Asia shares were mostly higher Thursday and benchmarks in Japan and South Korea reached new records after Wall Street wobbled following a better-than-expected US job report.

US futures edged higher.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 surpassed the 58,000 mark early in the session as trading resumed after a holiday. However, it gave up those gains, edging just 10 points lower to 57,639.84.

Japanese shares have rallied following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's landslide victory in a parliamentary election on Sunday, as investors expect more policies to help spur economic growth.

South Korea's Kospi breached the 5,500 mark for the first time, driven by gains for technology-related stocks. It was up 3.1 per cent at 5,522.27.

 

Samsung Electronics, South Korea's biggest listed company, rose 6.4 per cent. Chipmaker SK Hynix added 3.3 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.9 per cent to 27,028.67. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1 per cent higher, to 4,140.59.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.3 per cent to 9,043.50.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was flat after initially moving toward an all-time high, closing 0.34 points lower, at 6,941.47. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1 per cent to 50,121.40. The Nasdaq composite dropped 0.2 per cent to 23,066.47.

A US Labour Department report said US employers added 130,000 jobs to their payrolls in January, way more than economists had forecast.

The blockbuster US non-farm payrolls report "strengthens the case for higher US Treasury yields and a rebound in the dollar over the coming months," Jonas Goltermann, deputy chief markets economist at Capital Economics wrote in a note.

The latest job report reflects that the US labour market is stabilising, he said, so the chance of another Fed rate cut over the next few months is "quite low."  In the US stock market, Robinhood Markets, the trading and investment app, lost 8.8 per cent as investors focused on a slowdown in crypto trading that has weighed on the company. Bitcoin's price in recent days has fallen to roughly half of its record high set in October.

Moderna fell 3.5 per cent, after the US Food and Drug Administration refused to review its application for a new flu vaccine. Kraft Heinz was up 0.4 per cent, as the company said it was pausing plans to split into two businesses.

Shares of companies in the raw-material and energy sectors saw some of the bigger gains. Exxon Mobil rose 2.6 per cent, while Smurfit Westrock surged 9.9 per cent.

In other dealings early Thursday, US benchmark crude oil gained 15 cents to USD 64.78 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 13 cents to USD 69.53 per barrel.

Gold and silver prices fell on Thursday. The price of gold was down 0.4 per cent to 5,080 per ounce, and the price of silver fell 1.2 per cent to about USD 83 an ounce.

The US dollar fell to 152.94 Japanese yen from 153.27 yen. The euro was unchanged at USD 1.1873.