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In US economic data, non-farm payrolls rose by 528,000 in July (survey: 250,000). The unemployment rate fell from 3.6% to 3.5% (survey 3.6%). Average hourly earnings rose by 0.5% (survey: 0.3%). Consumer credit rose by US$40.15 billion in June (survey: US$25bn.)
European sharemarkets eased on Friday as investors weighed up strong US jobs growth and mixed earnings results. Miners rose 1.1% and oil stocks rose 0.6%. Shares in Lufthansa rose 4% after ground staff reached a pay deal. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell by 0.8%. The German Dax index lost 0.7% and the UK FTSE index fell by 0.1%. In London trade, shares of Rio Tinto rose by 2.0% while BHP shares rose by 1.9%.
US sharemarkets were mixed on Friday. Technology stocks fell after the strong jobs reported suggested that the aggressive rate hiking campaign by the Federal Reserve will continue. Shares in Tesla fell 6.6%. Shares in Lyft surged almost 17% after the ridehailing firm posted record quarterly earnings and raised profit targets. The Dow Jones index rose by 77 points or 0.2%. The S&P 500 index fell by 0.2% and the Nasdaq index fell by 63 points or 0.5%. Over the week the Dow fell 0.1%; the S&P 500 rose 0.4%; and the Nasdaq gained 2.2%.
US treasuries were sharply weaker on Friday (yields higher) in response to a strong jobs report. US rate futures have priced in a 69% chance of a 75 bps hike in September, up from about 41% before the payrolls data. US 10-year yields rose by 15 points to near 2.83%. And US 2-year yields rose by 19 points to near 3.23%. Over the week US 10-year yields rose by 17 points with 2-year yields up 34 points.
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Major currencies were weaker against the US dollar in European and US trade. The Euro fell from highs near US$1.0235 to around US$1.0140 and was near US$1.0180 at the US close. The Aussie dollar fell from near US69.75 cents and US68.70 cents and was near US69.10 cents at the US close. And the Japanese yen fell from near 132.88 yen per US dollar to JPY135.50 and was near JPY134.97 at the US close.
Global oil prices rose around 0.5% on Friday on position squaring but finished sharply lower over the week. The strong US jobs data supported oil prices on Friday, but for the remainder of the week investors fretted about the possibility of global recession. The Brent crude price rose by US80 cents or 0.8% to US$94.92 a barrel. And the US Nymex crude price rose by US47 cents or 0.5% to US$89.01 a barrel. Over the week Brent crude fell by 13.7% with Nymex down 9.7%.
Base metal prices rose by as much as 2.6% on Friday with lead up the most. The exception was tin, down 0.6%. Over the week zinc rose 5.3% and lead rose 2.8% but nickel fell by 6.1%.
The gold futures price fell by US$15.70 an ounce or 0.9% to US$1,791.20 an ounce. Spot gold was trading near US$1,774 an
ounce at the US close. Over the week gold rose by US$9.40 or 0.5%. The iron ore futures rose by US$2.61 or 2.5% to US$109.11 a tonne. Over the week iron ore fell by US$6.37 or 5.5%.
Originally Published by CommSec
