Asian Shares Mixed As US Jobs Data Fuels Rate Cut Bets

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks ended mixed on Monday as soft U.S. jobs data stirred concerns over the impact of new tariffs on the world's largest economy but fueled bets on a Federal Reserve rate cut in September.

Some market-watchers say it might even be a 50-basis points move, twice the regular amount to make up the lost time.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump fired Bureau of Labour Statistics Director General over distrust in employment statistics and said that Federal Reverse Chairman Jerome Powell should be "put out to pasture," stoking fears of political influence on key institutions.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that Trump and his team would study whether firing the Fed Chair was an option.

Regional bonds rose tracking U.S. peers and the U.S. dollar index steadied after a sharp 1.5 percent decline on Friday, while gold was marginally lower below $3,360 per ounce after rallying sharply in the previous session on the soft NFP report.

Oil edged up slightly after OPEC+ confirmed plans to raise production by 547,000 barrels per day (bpd) in September, as widely expected.

Chinese and Hong Kong markets recovered after last week's sharp declines. China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.66 percent to 3,583.31 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 0.92 percent to close at 24,733.45.

Japanese markets led regional declines as concerns mounted over political instability and the corporate outlook.

The Nikkei average fell 1.25 percent to 40,290.70 as reports suggested the government may introduce an extra budget to ease U.S. tariff impact. The broader Topix index dipped 1.10 percent to 2,916.20.

Automakers Honda and Toyota fell around 2 percent each on tariff worries. Credit Saison slumped 6.6 percent and Yamaha lot around 2 percent while chip maker Socionext surged 4.8 percent.

Seoul stocks bounced back after tumbling on Friday due to the government's tax increase proposal.

The Kospi average jumped 0.91 percent to 3,147.75 as reports suggested the ruling party may reconsider its tax revision proposal.

Australian markets ended marginally higher as resource stocks gained ground, offsetting declines in banks and energy stocks. Tech firm Block lost 4 percent ahead of its earnings release later in the week.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index dropped 0.36 percent to 12,684.04.

U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday, with weak U.S. payroll data, disappointing Amazon earnings, and concerns over President Trump's new import tariffs on multiple trading partners weighing on markets.

The latest jobs report showed nonfarm payrolls expanded by 73,000 in July, while economists had expected employment to increase by 110,000 jobs.

Jobs numbers for May and June were revised sharply downward and the jobless rate inched up to 4.2 percent, l the labor market has been weakening for a while now.

The Dow dropped 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 fell 1.6 percent in its biggest single-day loss since April 21, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gave up 2.2 percent.