Asian shares mixed ahead of US jobs figures

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Stock Market

Saturday, 04 February 2012

Author / Source : AFP

HONG KONG, Feb 3: Asian markets were mixed on Friday in edgy trade ahead of the release of US jobs data while Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke warned the labour market still had a long road to recovery. Investors also awaited the result of long-running talks between Greece and its creditors on cutting its huge debts, while Wall Street gave a mixed lead.
Tokyo slipped 0.51 per cent, or 44.89 points, to 8,831.93, Sydney fell 0.39 per cent, or 16.6 points, to 4,251.2 and Seoul shed 0.60 per cent, or 11.98 points, to 1,972.32.
Hong Kong was flat, edging 17.53 points higher to 20,756.98 while Shanghai reversed earlier losses to end up 0.77 per cent, adding 17.85 points to 2,330.41.
Eyes will be on the US Labor Department’s announcement of non-farm payroll figures after recent figures have shown a healthy number of jobs being created, which has led to hopes of recovery in the world’s number-one economy.
Forecasts say January’s release will show the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.5 per cent from December.
On Thursday the department said new claims for unemployment benefits, an indicator of the pace of layoffs, fell last week and continued to trend lower.
However, Bernanke told Congress that he remained concerned about persistently high unemployment, and especially those who have been jobless for long periods, which could make them more unlikely to find work.
More than 40 per cent of the 13 million unemployed have been jobless for more than six months, Bernanke said.
“We still have a long way to go before the labour market can be said to be operating normally.”     AFP