Global Shares Soar to Record, PBoC Preps Bond Plan – Asia Market Wrap

Global shares are rising to all-time highs as traders focus on Friday’s important US jobs report.

In Japan, the Topix index eclipsed the previous high established in 1989 during Thursday’s session, temporarily setting a new record early on Friday. Following Samsung’s above-estimate earnings, Korean markets surged. Following the Labour Party’s election to a majority of seats in Parliament, which gave it a clear mandate to carry on its promise of better economic stability, UK equity-index futures increased and the pound maintained its previous advances.

China’s central bank announced that it now had “hundreds of billions” of yuan of the securities at its disposal through agreements with lenders, taking the next step towards selling government bonds to quell a record-breaking rise.

Due to a string of weak US economic statistics, expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin reducing interest rates as early as September have been rekindled, and as a result, a measure of global stocks shot to a new high. The markets will be focused on the monthly payroll report later on Friday.