SYDNEY, NSW, Australia stocks in Asia were on the mend on Monday, on the back of a positive payrolls report in the U.S. on Friday.
Jonathan Millar, an economist at Barclays, told Reuters that May's numbers came in about as good as the Fed could expect.
It's a good sign that the Fed's plans to cool the labour market are playing out favorably so far, with solid gains in employment continuing to generate steady income gains that will help allay recession worries for the time being. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 154.32 points or 0.56 percent to 27,915. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was trading ahead of 340 points at the time of writing.
The Australian market didn't join the party with the All Ordinaries dropping 39.30 points or 0.53 percent to 7,433. The financial markets of New Zealand were closed Monday for the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
The U.S. dollar was found to be waning on foreign exchange markets. The euro remained well bid at 1.0732, with the ECB meeting this Thursday and likely to hike rates by 25 or 50 basis points. The British pound was stable at 1.2537. The Japanese yen has softened to 130.51. The Swiss franc was little changed at 0.9613.
The Canadian dollar was up to 1.2572. The Australian dollar was 0.7208, but was only marginally stronger.