SINGAPORE (AP) — Asian stock indexes rose Monday as investors rallied around a U. S. jobs report, despite fresh signs of a burgeoning trade war as…
SINGAPORE (AP) — Asian stock indexes rose Monday as investors rallied around a U. S. jobs report, despite fresh signs of a burgeoning trade war as weekend China-U. S. trade talks ended in an apparent impasse.
KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 1.4 percent to 22,481.64 and South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.3 percent to 2,446.77. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rallied 1.3 percent to 30,889.91 and the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.2 percent to 3,081.77. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6 percent to 6,025.00. Taiwan’s benchmark rose and Southeast Asian indexes were mostly higher.
WALL STREET: Major U. S. benchmarks finished higher on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent to 2,734.62, and the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.9 percent to 24,635.21. The Nasdaq composite jumped 1.5 percent to 7,554.33.
MORE U. S. JOBS: U. S. employers added a robust 233,000 jobs in May, up from 159,000 in April, helping to drive the nation’s unemployment rate to an 18-year low of 3.8 percent. «The May jobs report revealed impressive strength and breadth in U. S. job creation that blew away most economists’ expectations,» said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West.
CHINA’S WARNING: Raising the likelihood of a trade war, China said Sunday that it won’t step up purchases of American products if President Donald Trump taxes billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports. In May, China had promised to «significantly increase» its purchases of U. S. farm, energy and other products. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said then that the U. S. tariffs were suspended and the trade war «on hold.» President Trump has since renewed his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese high-tech goods.
QUOTEWORTHY: «The weekend has produced no positive trade developments and a few more negative ones. The world stands on the brink of a trade war,» said Robert Carnell, chief economist and head of research, Asia-Pacific at ING Bank.
NORTH KOREAN SUMMIT BACK ON: After a week of hard-nosed negotiations, diplomatic gamesmanship and no shortage of theatrics, President Donald Trump announced Friday that the historic nuclear-weapons summit he had canceled with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is back on. The June 12 meeting in Singapore, the first between heads of the technically still-warring nations, is meant to begin the process of ending North Korea’s nuclear program.
ENERGY: Oil futures dipped on speculation that OPEC countries may decide to raise supply at a summit later this month. Benchmark U. S. crude fell 4 cents to $65.77 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.23 to settle at $65.81 per barrel on Friday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 26 cents to $76.53 in London.
CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 109.63 yen from 109.52 yen in late trading Friday. The euro strengthened to $1.1696 from $1.1662.
___
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
