LONDON: Stocks held near record highs on Friday as investors waited to see if U.S. payroll figures will alter their bets on when central banks row back on pandemic stimulus and whether inflation is here to stay.
"The market is generally nervous with equity prices like the S&P500 being up at all-time highs, and there's a general sense of there is a pullback coming, but when is it going to be and what's the catalyst," said Giles Coghlan, chief currency analyst at HYCM. Economists polled by Reuters forecast that the U.S. economy created 700,000 jobs last month, up from 559,000 in May. That would be more than the 540,000 monthly average over the past three months.Advertisement
"The situation remains uncertain and no one would have their forecast with high degree of confidence now. Markets will be very sensitive to any upticks in inflation," said Tomo Kinoshita, global market strategist at Invesco.Japan's Nikkei gained 0.3per cent and most other markets held firm but MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1per cent due to declines in Chinese and Hong Kong shares.
In bond markets, the 10-year U.S. yield stood at 1.452per cent, largely staying below 1.5per cent in the past couple of weeks, in part thanks to subsiding inflation expectations.