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Asian Stock Market: Recovery stems amid risk-on mood ahead of US NFP, oil approaches $75.00

  • A significant improvement in investors’ risk appetite backed the recovery in the Asian indices.
  • Asian equities to display a decisive move post the release of the US NFP data.
  • Oil price continues its rangebound action despite an increase in weekly oil inventories.

Markets in the Asian domain have displayed a recovery move, shrugging off volatility witnessed in S&P500 on Thursday. Investors have accepted the fact that United States Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) could display a stronger-than-anticipated performance after upbeat cues from the release of the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Employment Change.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs see the first US Nonfarm Payrolls data release of 2023 at 225K+. The Unemployment Rate is seen unchanged at 3.7%.

At the press time, Japan’s Nikkei225 gained 0.70%, SZSE Component jumped 0.82%, Hang Seng climbed 0.66% and Nifty50 added 0.12%.

Investors are worried due to resilience in the United States job market as it would provide a genuine reason to the Federal Reserve (Fed) to keep the interest rates on an elevated note. The release of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes has already cleared that none of the Fed policymakers are expecting a consideration of an interest rate cut before CY2024. The street reacted significantly to the release of DP Employment Change data, however, the release of the official US employment data will provide more clarity on employment status.

Meanwhile, Chinese equities have picked strength amid China-Australia trade optimism. The Chinese economy is expected to wave off restrictions on imports of Australian commodities. Investors consider it a significant step from the Chinese administration to accelerate trade relations at times when it is reopening a full-fledged economy after a stretched lockdown period.

On the oil front, oil price has continued its sideways auction after a bloodbath recorded on Wednesday. In the Asian session, the black gold attempted to extend its recovery above the crucial resistance of $75.00. The oil price didn’t display any major gyration despite the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reporting an increase in oil stockpiles by 1.694 million barrels for the week ending December 30.