By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asian stocks were up on Friday morning. Markets got an end-of-week boost after China and the U.S. released positive data, improving investor sentiment on the global economic recovery from COVID-19.
Earlier in the day, China reported a Caixin Services Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) of 58.4 for June, which was higher than the previous month’s figure of 55 and the highest reading in two months.
China’s Shanghai Composite gained 1.02% by 10:56 PM ET (3:56 AM GMT) while the Shenzhen Component was down 0.17%, reversing earlier gains.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose by 0.48%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.11% and South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.48%.
Down Under, the ASX 200 rose 0.07%. Australia reported a 16.9% rise in retail sales month-on-month in May.
Meanwhile, the U.S. also released positive data on Thursday, with non-farm payrolls surging to 4.8 million in June, compared to the predicted 3 million in analyst forecasts prepared by Investing.com and May’s figure of 2.699 million.
Although U.S. markets surged during the previous session and investors welcomed the positive figures, fears remain as the number of global COVID-19 cases continues to increase.
There were more than 10.8 million cases globally as of July 3, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
“There’s still a general positive sentiment about how quickly we’re seeing the recovery,” Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank, told Bloomberg.
“But we do think you’re going to see the recovery level off, especially if we continue to see higher case numbers on the virus.”