SINGAPORE — Japanese stocks jumped on Monday after the country’s ruling coalition won big in the upper house elections Sunday.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan jumped as much as 2% and was last up 1.77%, while the Topix index gained 1.72%.
Japan’s ruling coalition is set to increase its majority in the upper house of the country’s parliament, local broadcaster NHK projected. Voters headed to the polls two days after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while campaigning on behalf of the Liberal Democratic Party in the city of Nara.
In other parts of the region, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was just under the flatline.
The Kospi in South Korea reversed losses to rise 0.27% and the Kosdaq gained 0.76%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was almost flat.
In the U.S. on Friday, U.S. nonfarm payrolls for June surprised to the upside, coming in at 372,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s well above the Dow Jones estimate of 250,000. The unemployment rate was unchanged from May at 3.6%.
That jobs report helped to reduce recession fears somewhat, economists said.
Japan’s ruling coalition is set to increase its majority in the upper house of the country’s parliament, local broadcaster NHK projected. Voters headed to the polls two days after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while campaigning on behalf of the Liberal Democratic Party in the city of Nara.
Elsewhere over the weekend, city officials said nearly all commercial and industrial businesses — including casinos — in Macao will shut for one week from Monday in a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19, according to Reuters.
In company news, China imposed fines on several companies, including tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, for not complying with anti-monopoly rules on disclosure of transactions, according to Reuters.
Singapore and Malaysia markets are closed for a holiday on Monday.
Later this week, the U.S. will report inflation data, while China will release its GDP, industrial production and retail sales data. Earnings season also kicks off this week.
Currencies and oil
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 107.067.
The Japanese yen traded at 136.31 per dollar, weaker than levels seen late last week. The yen strengthened on news that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had been shot Friday. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6841.
U.S. crude futures were around flat in Asia’s morning trade, while Brent crude rose 0.33% to $107.37 per barrel.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.
