Global markets -Shares, oil set for bumper weeks as payrolls near

This is the best week for Asian shares in five months and the weekly jump in a row in oil prices putting global markets in a buoyant mood on Friday.

Monthly U.S. jobs data is expected.

European shares and Wall Street were both headed for their third week of gains with the FTSEurofirst up 0.7 per cent .

Futures prices are predicting a 0.2-0.3 per cent post-payrolls rise when trading gets underway in New York.

Solid results for the world’s largest advertiser WPP had dovetailed with the latest ups in commodities markets.

Hopes for another shot of European Central Bank stimulus next week is to put Europe on track for a 3.5 per cent weekly rise.

Investors seem to have put recent worries about a potential global recession firmly behind them for the moment.

U.S. ‘non-farm’ payrolls numbers are expected to show the labour market in the world’s largest economy ticking along nicely.

A media poll of economists forecasts them to show 190,000 jobs were added last month and that the overall unemployment level staying at an eight-year low of 4.9 per cent.

“We didn’t believe the ‘world is going to end’ story. However, the way the mood has changed in the last couple of weeks is just crazy,” said Janus Capital portfolio manager and global research analyst Ryan Myerberg.

“Since the beginning of the year it has been like driving down the motorway where every couple of miles a tractor has overturned. Whether that be China, oil, the banks, realize that you have to swerve around.”

The return of risk appetite was closely tracking the recovery in oil and other commodity prices, although save-haven favourite gold remained an outlier as it consolidated a 13-month high.

Benchmark Brent futures were at two-month highs of 37.48 dollars per barrel as they headed for a gain of 6.6 per cent this week.

The dollar was grinding sideways as traders opted for caution.

The greenback was flat against a basket of major currencies as the euro nudged back to 1.0970 dollars just above where it started the week and the yen steadied at 113.74.

Traders also locked in some profits on sterling having seen it bounce back almost two per cent this week from last month’s five per cent ‘Brexit’ battering.

In the bond markets, investors were also beginning to head to the sidelines.

U.S. Treasuries were flat in both the 2- and 10- year space.

German Bund yields bobbed up marginally and Portugal’s yields ticked higher ahead of the first of a number of back-to-back credit rating reviews later.

Industrial metals iron ore .IO62-CNI=SI and copper both hit 4-month highs with the latter on course for its best week in roughly six months.

Emerging markets stocks were roaring too.

MSCI’s 23-country EM index rose 0.6 per cent for a sixth day of gains, its longest winning streak and best week since October.

Russian markets remained on a red hot streak as the rise in oil and easing inflation worries sent yields on Russian government bonds to their lowest in a year and half.

Brazil’s Bovespa index had surged more than five per cent on Thursday, its biggest gain in six years, on news that President Dilma Rousseff could be implicated in corruption scandal.

That encouraged investors who blame her administration’s policies for driving Brazil into deep recession.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ended the week at its highest in almost two months.

Another 0.6 per cent rise saw it chalk up a 5.5 per cent gain for the week, its strongest since October.

Japan’s Nikkei was up five per cent on the week too, while the two main Chinese share markets took their gains since Monday to 4.7 and 3.5 per cent.

Investors are awaiting the start of the annual meeting of China’s parliament on Saturday.

It will map out economic goals for the next five years, with markets hoping for enough stimuli to fend off any major slowdown worries.

The People’s Bank of China set the midpoint rate at 6.5284 per dollar prior to Friday’s market open, 0.20 per cent firmer than the previous fix.