Asian shares rose on Monday, lifted by encouraging employment data from the US that took the S&P 500 index to its third straight weekly gain on Friday despite weakness earlier in the week.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index was up 0.2 per cent at 22,855.98 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.5 per cent to 28,777.13. The S&P ASX 200 in Australia edged 0.1 per cent higher to 6,000.20.
The Shanghai Composite index added 0.4 per cent to 3.303.22. South Korea’s Kospi was up a bit more than 0.1 per cent at 2,467.22. Shares in Southeast Asia also were higher, reports AP.
US shares climbed after the jobs report showed that employers added 228,000 jobs last month.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent to 2,651.50, another record. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.5 per cent to 24,329.16 and the Nasdaq composite added 0.4 per cent to 6,840.08.
The price of oil fell back, with benchmark US crude losing 30 cents to settle at $57.06 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 67 cents to $57.06 per barrel on Friday.
Brent crude, the international standard, lost 31 cents to $63.09 per barrel. It rose $1.20 to $63.40 per barrel on Friday. That helped energy stocks in the S&P 500 rise 0.9 per cent.
The first-ever bitcoin future jumped. The price of an actual bitcoin has soared since beginning the year below $1,000. As of 0400 GMT it was at $16,353.67 on the private exchange Coindesk.
The dollar ticked up to 113.59 Japanese yen from 113.48 yen late Friday. The euro rose to $1.1784 from $1.1774, and the British pound climbed to $1.3403 from $1.3465.