Tokyo: European and Asian shares were mostly higher Friday ahead of a report on US employment that is expected to show the economy remains strong despite a prolonged bout of high interest rates.Oil prices and US futures were higher.
Germany’s DAX gained 0.3 per cent to 17,958.12 and the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.5 per cent to 7,950.67. In London, the FTSE 100 added 0.3 per cent to 8,198.88. The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.3 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6 per cent. Markets in Tokyo and mainland China were closed for holidays. The Japanese yen strengthened slightly against the US dollar amid signs of heavy central bank intervention to tamp down the dollar’s advance.
The financial newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that estimates showed the government spending an estimated 8 trillion yen (about $50 billion) in reserves this week to try to keep the yen from slipping further against the dollar. The weaker yen has helped boost prices for imported goods, a factor behind the Bank of Japan’s recent decision to give up its negative interest rate policy and raise its benchmark rate from zero to 0.1 per cent from a longstanding level of minus 0.1 per cent.