Pound falls again amid Brexit chaos as global stocks gain

Wall Street stocks climbed after the labour department reported that the US added 196,000 net new positions in March, well above expectations, while the jobless rate held steady at 3.8%.

Analysts viewed the report as highly favourable to stocks because it lessened fears of a profound economic slowdown. At the same time, wage inflation moderated, reducing the chances the Federal Reserve will shift to a more hawkish posture.

“The jobs report was just perfect for equities,” said LBBW’s Karl Haeling.

The S&P 500 closed the week with a gain of 2.1%, lifting its total advance in 2019 to 15.4%.

Asian equity indices mostly rose in holiday-thinned trade on hopes that China and the US will hammer out a trade deal after both sides sounded notes of optimism.

With top negotiators from the world’s top two economies huddled down in Washington for three days of talks, there has been a growing sense they are close to an agreement to end a stand-off that battered global equities in 2018.

However, Trump himself stopped short of saying a deal was certain.

Deal prediction

“I don’t want to predict a deal or not a deal, but we’re very well along,” the US president said on Friday. “We have really negotiated probably the two hardest points.”

Among individual stocks, Tesla Motors advanced 2.7%, winning back some of Thursday’s 8.2% drop following weak first-quarter auto deliveries.

Tesla’s advance came after a federal judge on Thursday directed company CEO Elon Musk to meet with officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission after the agency asked the court to find Musk in contempt for allegedly flouting a settlement with the agency.

Boeing fell 2.3% in after-hours trading after it announced it was cutting its production schedule of its 737 aircraft to 42 planes a month, down from 52 a month, starting in mid-April.

The move comes as the global fleet of Boeing 737 MAX planes has been grounded following two deadly crashes.

AFP