Dawn Chorus: Stock markets upbeat on optimism about US economy

After closing a stellar week on Friday, stocks are likely to gain further with investors feeling a bit more optimistic about the US economy, due to a stronger-than-expected jobs data.

Wall Street rallied more than 1% on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average scaling back into the black for the year. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index jumped 3.8% for the week, registering its best week in eight.

The rally came after the Labour Department said that US payrolls fell for a third straight month, but  the loss of 54,000 non-farm jobs was far less than the 100,000 expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Investors are likely to remain focused on last week’s US jobs report amid a lack of significant data releases this week. They will also scrutinise a series of central bank meetings for signs of confidence or concern over the state of recovery in developed economies. This week, the central banks of Japan, Australia, Canada and the UK hold interest rate-setting meetings.

The agenda for this week also include the international trade deficit data, which investors will examine for clues on spending. According to economists polled by Reuters, US government data during the week is expected to show the international trade deficit narrowed somewhat to $47.2 billion in July.

Initial jobless claims, due on Thursday, are seen dipping to a seasonally adjusted 470,000 for the week from 472,000 previously. And wholesale inventories for July, due on Friday, are estimated to rise 0.4%, the Reuters poll showed.

In Europe, where indices posted the biggest weekly gain since July last week, the focus will be on industrial data. Analysts see German industrial production accelerating to 13.2% growth year-on-year for July. France and the UK are also likely to register growth in industrial production in July.

Asian stocks rose on Monday as better-than-estimated jobs data in the US eased concern that global economic recovery is faltering. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.6% to 121 as of 10:43 a.m. in Tokyo, taking its four-day advance to 3.6%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 1.5%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 0.3%.  The Shanghai Composite Index, after adding 1.7% last week, was up 0.8% on Monday. Hang Seng Index has gained 0.9%.