
Trading volume in Shanghai is low due to the holiday, while US labor market data dampens interest rate fantasies
AI-generated summary
Asian markets react to US labor market data and changing interest rate expectations from the Federal Reserve.
However, trading volume was low because the Shanghai Stock Exchange was closed for a holiday. The index of major companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen was also not traded. Trade was also halted in South Korea and parts of Australia.
"Labor market conditions are stable overall, but Friday's downward revisions signal that the U.S. economy lost jobs in two of the nine months this year," said Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers. The risk of further job losses means the Fed cannot raise interest rates by another 100 basis points.
This development made the Japanese indices the clear winners of the Asian trading day. Investors are now pricing in just a 22 percent chance of a rate hike this month, down from 64 percent last week. Since there was a lack of company-specific news as well as winners and losers in individual stocks due to the holidays in China, the Asian markets primarily followed the positive guidance from the US stock exchanges.

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