Even though US markets will be closed tonight for the Labor Day holiday (meaning two days without much of a guide for markets in Asia, other than Europe), that shouldn’t have much of an impact on the gathering optimism about the health of the Australian and global economies.
The favourable global lead saw ASX 200 futures gain 24 points or 0.4% pointing to a positive start to trade for the Australian share market later this morning.
The local market jumped 10 points on Friday as figures from China confirmed the country’s economy is doing better than all the experts had forecast, and America’s jobs report for August, while lower than forecast (156,000 new jobs, down from more than 170,000 forecast and a small rise in the employment rate to 4.4% from 4.3%).
That plus solid surveys of manufacturing activity in Europe and the US – and expectations of more to come, has seen the start of a change in outlook for the global economy.
Figures this week in Australia, culminating with the June quarter National Accounts on Wednesday, will confirm the economy is doing better than all the gloomy glorias believe.
Early forecasts say growth will be around 0.5% (for an annual rate of 1.5%), but that will understate the improving pace of activity.
As well the earnings season is over and on the whole it was a bit stronger than all the gloomsters claim (see separate article).
Eurozone shares rose 0.6% on Friday in the wake of the good survey results on manufacturing, while the US S&P 500 gained 0.2% as investors looked through slightly softer than expected US jobs data and were also buoyed by a strong manufacturing conditions report.
It was a solid start to September for markets (September is not a good month for markets in Europe and the US as people return from holidays).
US shares rose 1.4% over the week, Eurozone shares 0.2%, Japanese shares rose 1.2%, while Chinese shares rose 0.4%.
Australian shares lost 0.3%. Bond yields were largely flat. While oil prices fell slightly metals and iron ore rose. The $A drifted higher to end around 79.75 US cents, up half a cent over the week.
On Wall Street all three major indices posted weekly advances, and renewed investor interest in tech and biotech stocks helped the Nasdaq notch its best weekly performance so far this year.
The Nasdaq rose 0.1% 0.1 on Friday to hit a fresh all-time closing high of 6,435.33. That left it 2.71% over the week, the best weekly performance since December.
The Dow ended the day up 0.18% to 21,987.56 and 0.8% for the week.
The S&P 500 advanced 0.2% to 2,476.55 and was up 1.37% over the week for back-to-back winning weeks.
