HONG KONG (AP) - Asian shares exhibited mostly positive movement on Thursday, with record-breaking benchmarks in Japan and South Korea following a mixed performance on Wall Street, spurred by a favorable U.S. job report.
U.S. futures also showed modest gains. The Tokyo Stock Exchange's Nikkei 225 index climbed above the 58,000 mark early in the session, marking a continuation of trading after a holiday break. By midday, it had strengthened by 0.2%, reaching 57,748.81.
The surge in Japanese shares followed Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's substantial victory in the parliamentary elections held on Sunday, generating optimism among investors regarding potential policy changes aimed at stimulating economic growth.
Meanwhile, South Korea's Kospi index crossed the 5,500 threshold during the day, buoyed by strong gains in technology stocks, closing up 2.5% at 5,485.71. Notably, Samsung Electronics, the largest listed company in South Korea, saw its shares increase by 5.9%, while chipmaker SK Hynix rose by 3.3%.
On the other hand, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index experienced a decline, falling by 0.9% to settle at 27,024.06. The Shanghai Composite index inched up by 0.1%, reaching 4,137.06, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index traded 0.3% higher at 9,037.60.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 finished flat, moving towards an all-time high, and ultimately closing down by 0.34 points at 6,941.47. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.1% to 50,121.40, and the Nasdaq Composite experienced a slight drop of 0.2%, finishing at 23,066.47. This followed a report from the U.S. Labor Department indicating that employers added 130,000 jobs to their payrolls in January, a figure significantly exceeding economists' expectations.
This robust U.S. non-farm payrolls report has increased expectations for elevated U.S. Treasury yields and a rebound in the dollar over the coming months. Jonas Goltermann, the deputy chief markets economist at Capital Economics, noted in a statement that the employment data reflects a stabilizing U.S. labor market, implying that the likelihood of another rate cut by the Federal Reserve in the near future is relatively low.
In the U.S. stock market, Robinhood Markets saw a decline of 8.8% as investors expressed concerns regarding a slowdown in cryptocurrency trading, which has adversely affected the company's performance. Bitcoin's price has recently plummeted to approximately half of its peak recorded in October.
Shares in the raw materials and energy sectors reported some of the most substantial increases. Exxon Mobil's stock gained 2.6%, while Smurfit Westrock experienced a notable surge of 9.9%. Additionally, Moderna's shares fell by 3.5% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to review its application for a new flu vaccine, while Kraft Heinz's stock increased by 0.4%, following the company’s announcement to pause plans for a split into two entities.
As trading continued on Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil saw a slight increase of 40 cents, bringing it to $65.03 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 38 cents to $69.78 per barrel. Conversely, the prices for both gold and silver declined; gold was down by 0.4% at $5,079.30 per ounce, and silver fell by 0.6% to $83.42 per ounce.
The U.S. dollar also experienced fluctuations, decreasing to 152.77 Japanese yen, a drop from 153.27 yen, whereas the euro traded at $1.1862, down from $1.1873.
