Weekly overview: Another strong week for Asian shares, near 2-month low for Oil

Asia stocks were up again as upbeat U.S. jobs data calmed immediate concerns about the health of the world’s largest economy.

Japan’s Nikkei jumped 4.5%, which happened to be its highest daily gain in 3 months.

Hikaru Sato, a senior technical analyst at Daiwa Securities, commented:

Abe’s victory boosted confidence in investor sentiment, and winning a two-thirds majority sends foreign investors a message that Abe’s policies will see a progress.”

The Asian rebound came right after the news that the U.S. economy added 287,000 jobs last month.

The Dow was up 1.4%, while the S&P 500 stayed firm at 1.53%.

The BoE meets on Thursday and might cut its 0.5% interest rate to offset the economic drag from Brexit.

Speaking of Britain, the British pound was stuck at $1.2963 on Monday, after failing utterly to rebound from the 13% loss suffered right after Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

Crude prices dropped down to near 2-month low, despite comments from Saudi Arabia’s oil minister that the oil market was becoming more balanced. Brent crude futures were trading at $46.42 per barrel, down 34 cents from their last settlement.

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