By Dow Jones Business News, October 02, 2015, 07:11:00 AM EDT
By Riva Gold
Global stock markets climbed Friday, as investors waited for the September U.S. jobs report to offer more clarity on the Federal Reserve’s plans to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 1.7% by midsession, rebounding from Thursday’s losses and following a late bounce on Wall Street.
U.S. stock futures also rose, indicating a 0.4% opening gain for the S&P 500. Changes in futures aren’t necessarily reflected in market moves after the opening bell. Shares on Wall Street closed little-changed Thursday.
Asian markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.1% higher after falling earlier, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 3.2% as it reopened from a holiday. Shares in Australia fell 1.2%.
The September jobs report is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast jobs growth of 200,000, following a net gain of 173,000 in August, and a jobless rate unchanged at 5.1%.
Stock investors will be hoping for a strong number, even though that would likely bring forward the prospect of a Fed rate rise, according to Christian Stocker, an analyst at UniCredit. Rock-bottom rates have helped fuel years of rising stock markets.
“Investors have realized that the era of easy money will come to an end, whether it is this year or next year. Now they are hoping that the economy is strong enough to support that,” he said.
The Fed’s decision last month not to raise rates stoked concerns about the U.S. economy’s ability to withstand turmoil in global equity markets and a slowdown in China.
Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen last week reassured investors that the U.S. economy was strong enough to support an interest-rate increase in 2015.
Since tumbling in late August, global stock markets have seen some sharp daily swings, but have made little overall headway amid continuing uncertainty on the state of the Chinese economy and the Fed’s plans.
Mixed U.S. economic data on Thursday did little to settle investors’ questions. A measure of manufacturing activity from the Institute for Supply Management came in below expectations, hitting its lowest level in more than two years. Meanwhile, weekly initial jobless claims rose modestly and U.S. auto sales accelerated in September.
In currency markets, the dollar climbed, continuing to rebound from its losses after last month’s hold from the Fed.
The euro was down 0.3% against the buck at $ 1.1159. The dollar was up 0.3% against the yen at Yen120.23. Japanese companies’ inflation expectations weakened over the third quarter, a quarterly Bank of Japan survey showed Friday, drifting farther from the Bank of Japan’s 2% inflation goal ahead of two policy meetings this month.
In commodity markets, Brent crude oil was up 0.2% at $ 48.46 barrel. Gold fell 0.7% to $ 1,105.60 a troy ounce.
Write to Tommy Stubbington at tommy.stubbington@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 10-02-150711ET Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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