A Chinese flag is seen in the Lujiazui Financial District in Pudong, Shanghai, China, on September 18, 2023.
Raul Ariano | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets followed Wall Street higher on Monday as a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report raised hopes that the Federal Reserve may soon begin cutting interest rates.
Meanwhile, investors await the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate decision on Tuesday and April trade data from China on Thursday.
ING said in a report last week that the Reserve Bank of Australia meeting “warrants close attention”, adding that recent Australian inflation data showed price growth was starting to accelerate.
However, analysts said Australia’s inflation data was better than they expected and that the country’s economy has slowed more sharply than the United States and its labor market has softened significantly. Therefore, they predict that the RBA’s interest rate of 4.35% will not change.
On Monday, S&P Global released composite PMI data for Hong Kong, as well as services PMI data for China and India.
Markets in Japan and South Korea were closed for public holidays.
Australian S&P/ASX 200 Index It rose 0.7% to close at 7,682.4 points, rising for the third consecutive day.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.47% as traders returned from the Labor Day holiday, while mainland China’s CSI 300 Index rose 1.48% to close at 3,657.88 points.
U.S. stocks rose sharply on Friday April jobs report weaker than expected.
Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report showed 175,000 new jobs were created in April, below the 240,000 jobs expected by economists polled by Dow Jones.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% from 3.8% last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The wage data also came in below expectations, an encouraging sign for inflation.
this S&P 500 Index surged 1.26%, its best single-day performance since February, while Nasdaq Index up 1.99%.this Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.18%.
—CNBC’s Samantha Subin and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
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