BANGKOK — Shares advanced in Asia on Thursday after a day of modest gains on Wall Street, led by buying of energy and technology stocks. Oil prices also rose.
Benchmarks rose in Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul but fell in Hong Kong.
In a quiet news week, investors are watching for a U.S. Labor Department report on Friday that economists forecast will show employers added more than 650,000 jobs last month. It is expected to yield fresh clues about the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate policy moves later this month, when the central bank holds its next meeting of policymakers.
Expectations of a strong increase in hiring have stoked worries about inflation and how world central banks may respond to it. The concern is that the global recovery could be hampered if governments and central banks have to withdraw stimulus to combat rising prices.
News reports in Japan said the government is considering extra support for the economy as the country endures another bout of coronavirus outbreaks while it ramps up vaccinations ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, which are due to begin late next month.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index JP:NIK rose near 0.5% and the Shanghai Composite index CN:SHCOMP added 0.4%. South Korea’s Kospi KR:180721 jumped 0.8%, helped by the rally in technology shares, which favor market heavyweights like Samsung Electronics KR:005930.
The S&P/ASX 200 AU:XJO gained 0.6%, while the Hang Seng HK:HSI in Hong Kong lost 0.4%.
On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 SPX rose 0.1% to 4,208.12 as strength in technology, energy and real estate stocks offset a pullback in retailers and other companies that rely on consumer spending. Communication, industrial and materials stocks also fell. Treasury yields mostly eased after rising a day earlier.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA edged 0.1% higher, to 34,600.38. The Nasdaq COMP recovered from an early slide, adding 0.1% to 13,756.33.
Small-company stocks also notched modest gains. The Russell 2000 index RUT rose 0.1% to 2,297.83.
Shares in movie theater operator AMC Entertainment AMC nearly doubled in another bout of heavy trading as the company embraced its status as a “meme” stock being driven higher by hordes of individual investors. Other stocks like GameStop GME that have been championed on online message boards and social media also rose.
“Payrolls will hopefully help to clarify where the Fed stands,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “Until then, it’s going to be hard for the market to find a real direction, with the exception of the small-cap meme stocks.”
Bond yields edged lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note BX:TMUBMUSD10Y was steady at 1.59%.
Technology companies did much of the heavy lifting for the S&P 500. Chipmaker Nvidia NVDA rose 3.2%. Payments processor Visa V gained 1.3% after giving investors an encouraging financial update.
Etsy ETSY jumped 7.1% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 after the online crafts marketplace said it will buy Depop, an app that’s popular among young people looking to buy and sell used clothing and vintage fashions from the early 2000s.
Energy companies also made broad gains as oil prices ticked more than 1% higher. Occidental Petroleum OXY rose 2.7% and Schlumberger SLB led all S&P 500 stocks with a 7.7% gain.
U.S. benchmark crude CL00 gained 38 cents to $69.21 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It advanced $1.11 to $68.83 per barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude BRN00, the international pricing benchmark, rose 41 cents to $71.76 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar was trading at 109.69 Japanese yen USDJPY, up from 109.57 yen late Wednesday. The euro EURUSD slipped to $1.2207 from $1.2212.