Asian Shares Advances, Europe Stocks Fall on Monday

TOKYO, Japan – Asian shares mostly advance on Monday while European stocks fell.

Gains in the Asian stock market was largely boosted by the encouragement of market players to buy late last week following Wall Street hyping on the optimism over the US-China trade negotiations and the strong data on US jobs.

However, shares in Europe mostly declined for the day with the CAC 40 index in France slipping to a 0.2% low early in the trading session, going down towards the 5,860.03 value. The DAX index in Germany and the FTSE 100 in Britain both recorded a 0.1% loss towards 13,154.81 and 7,230.09, respectively.

The strong US jobs numbers for November were surprisingly optimistic, hyping investors into a buying mood the previous session, which led Wall Street into its third consecutive day of wins.

According to Vishnu Varathan from the Mizuho Bank of Singapore, the day’s gains in the market was largely due to the solid US jobs number. However, Varathan also said that there are still questions about whether optimism will continue amid the other risks in the global market.

According to reports from the Labor Department, around 266,000 positions were added by employers, which is significantly higher than what was originally predicted at 184,000 jobs. The report from the Labor Department also showed the unemployment rate falling to a 50-year low.

In Asia, most stocks recorded gains for the day. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index in Japan edged higher at around 0.3%, ending the session at 23,430.70, following the reports from the cabinet stating a 1.8% increase in the economy for the period July to September. The reported data is significantly higher than the originally predicted 0.2% growth for the period and marking the country’s fourth consecutive quarter of advances.

Elsewhere in Asia, the Kospi index in South Korea recorded a 0.3% increase towards 2,088.65 while the S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia also rose by 0.3% towards 6,730.0. The Shanghai Composite index in China also rose by around 0.1% towards 2,914.48.

The start of the week is looking optimistic for the Dow Jones Industrial Average as well, which recorded a 300-points increase on Friday. The S&P 500 index also recovered from its losses early last week, which allowed the index to reach another week of gains.

The recent report of steady job growth has been the brightest spot in the economy for today, along with a stronger consumer spending, which mostly encourages investors into a buying mode as they continue to wait for more updates on US-China trade talks before the December 15 tariffs.