TOKYO, JAPAN — On Thursday, Asian stocks were mainly lower as investors awaited the release of the much-anticipated US jobs report, which would provide insight into how the global recovery is progressing. In early trade, Japan’s Nikkei 225 NIK, -0.41 percent fell 0.5 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi 180721, -0.39 percent fell 0.5 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia XJO, -0.48 percent fell 0.4 percent. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.07% dropped 0.1 percent. Hong Kong’s markets were closed on the anniversary of the former British colony’s transfer to Beijing. Stocks in Taiwan (Y9999, -0.24%) and Singapore (STI, +0.05%) fell, while Indonesia (JAKIDX, -0.09%) rose.
Despite the epidemic, the Bank of Japan’s quarterly “tankan” poll showed continued improvement, with large manufacturers’ attitude remaining mostly optimistic. According to Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING, the headline survey increased to 14 from 5 the previous quarter, but this was lower than predicted. The tankan calculates corporate sentiment by subtracting the number of companies reporting bad business conditions from those reporting positive circumstances. According to Carnell and others, the tankan findings suggest that the major surge in recovery for the world’s third largest economy may have already passed, and that the recovery will now be steady but sluggish. “Risk factors like the more contagious delta strain of COVID-19 and the US payrolls report will remain on the radar,” said Yeap Jun Rong, a market strategist at IG in Singapore. “Although there has been optimism on the vaccine front to restrict the delta variety, the region’s immunization progress will have to ramp up significantly to deal with the spreads,” Yeap added. Concerns persist because Asia lags behind the United States and portions of Europe in vaccines, and several countries are experiencing their biggest outbreaks yet. The S&P 500 index rose 0.1 percent on Wall Street, increasing its three-month gain to 8.2 percent and 14.4% for the first half of the year. Stocks have been rising on hopes that the economy is improving and that the Federal Reserve will maintain its low interest rate policy for a little longer. According to Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, “the Fed has left the metaphorical spigot on, if you will, with liquidity, so there’s still a pretty large amount of capital out there searching for a place to go.” Investors are anticipating the release of the government’s monthly jobs data on Friday. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.13 percent increased 5.70 points to 4,297.50 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.61% increased by 0.6 percent to 34,502.51 points. The Nasdaq composite COMP, -0.17% dropped 0.2 percent to 14,503.95. On Monday and Tuesday, the tech-heavy index set new highs. In energy trading, the New York Mercantile Exchange’s benchmark U.S. crude CLQ21, +0.31 percent increased 23 cents to $73.70 a barrel in electronic trading. On Wednesday, it rose 49 cents to $73.47. Brent oil BRNQ21, +0.49%, the worldwide benchmark, increased 19 cents to $74.81 a barrel. The US dollar USDJPY, -0.01% fell to 111.09 Japanese yen from 111.11 yen in currency trade./n
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