Asian markets lift after strong US jobs data

Asian markets rallied on Monday, extending their gains at the end of last week, following another strong US jobs report that reinforced confidence in the US economy and helped settle trade war nerves.

While Friday’s tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars of goods by the world’s top two economies were seen as damaging, analysts said the impact would be limited.

Global markets had been tumbling ahead of the imposition of the tariffs but bounced on Friday.

The upbeat sentiment carried over into the new week after data showed the US economy created more than 200,000 jobs in June, beating expectations.

That was compounded by the fact that average hourly earnings growth remained sluggish, while the unemployment rate edged up, easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates.

The result helped all three main indexes on Wall Street to end on a high note.

In Asia on Monday, Tokyo went into the break 1.3 percent higher, while Hong Kong and Shanghai were each 1.4 percent up in the morning.

Sydney rose 0.2 percent, Singapore climbed 0.9 percent, Seoul added 0.5 percent and Taipei was more than one percent higher.

However, concerns remain that the trade row between China and the US could intensify, with Donald Trump threatening hundreds of billions of dollars more in Chinese goods.