Stocks rose in many of the markets worlwide that were still open on Good Friday, while Treasury yields rallied after a report showed U.S. employers added hundreds of thousands more jobs last month than economists expected.
Many major stock markets were closed in observance of Good Friday, including in New York and much of Europe. In Asia, stocks in Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai all climbed a day after the S&P 500 passed the 4,000-point level for the first time.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 1.71% from 1.68% late Thursday. It’s been rising sharply after starting the year close to 0.90% on expectations that a supercharged economic recovery and higher inflation were on the way due to COVID-19 vaccinations and massive spending by the U.S. government.
Futures for U.S. stock indexes also rose, suggesting the S&P 500 may add to its record set on Thursday when trading resumes on Monday.
Friday morning’s U.S. jobs report was highly anticipated, as investors hoped it would show that their expectations of a strong economic recovery were warranted. Hiring blew past expectations, with employers adding 916,000 more jobs than they cut last month. Economists had forecast growth of 617,500.
It was nearly double the jobs growth from February, and it was the strongest since August. The data helped S&P 500 futures climb 0.4%, following the 1.2% rise for the index on Thursday to an all-time high. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq also climbed.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index gained 1.6% to 29,854.00 and the Kospi in South Korea added 0.8% to 3,112.80. The Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.5% to 3,484.39.
Audio equipment maker Onkyo Home Entertainment’s shares plunged more than 14% after falling 68% on Thursday as the company is due to be delisted in Tokyo after it reported a negative net worth for two straight years.
Onkyo has so far failed to raise enough funding to cover its debt and has forecast a net loss of 5.9 billion yen ($53.6 million) for the fiscal year that ended March 31.