By Stanley White
TOKYO (Reuters) – Stocks rose on Monday amid speculation that interest rates will remain low for an extended period due to the receding risk of a rapid acceleration in inflation, while oil prices jumped after a cyber attack on a U.S. pipeline operator unnerved markets.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.49%
Futures for Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.03%. Australian S&P/ASX 200 futures were down 0.06%. U.S. stock futures rose 0.12%.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls data on Friday showed jobs growth unexpectedly slowed in April, which gave equities a lift but put downward pressure on the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields.
Oil futures extended gains after a cyber attack shut down a U.S. pipeline operator that provides nearly half of the U.S. east coast’s fuel supply.
“It certainly pushes back the timetable for Fed tapering, perhaps to December from the prior expectations of the Jackson Hole Symposium in late August,” Chris Weston, head of research at broker Pepperstone in Melbourne, wrote in a memo.
“A softer payrolls is good for the reflation trade; the dollar weakened across the FX spectrum. We’ve also seen a solid bid in equity indices and futures are up.”
On Friday the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 rose to record closing highs after disappointing data on the U.S. jobs market eased concerns about a spike in consumer prices.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies edged 0.09% lower to 90.15.
Spot gold prices rose 0.15% to $1,833.31 an ounce.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes steadied at 1.5824% in Asia on Monday after having plunged to a two-month low of 1.4690% on Friday.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 0.89% to $65.48 a barrel, while Brent crude rose 0.94%to $68.92 in Asian trading as the disruption to U.S. supplies rattled energy markets. [O/R]
The White House is working closely with top U.S. fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline on Sunday to help it recover from a ransomware attack that forced the company to shut its main fuel lines.
(Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
