Asia stocks rise in early trade Monday Oct 5

Taking an early lead from Wall Street, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.7 percent. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.6 percent and Australian shares gained 1.9 percent. Tokyo's Nikkei jumped 1 percent. (AFP file picture shows pedestrians walking in front of a share prices board showing the numbers on the Nikkei 225 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo.)

TOKYO: Asian stocks rose early on Monday after prospects of a near-term interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve ebbed in the wake of Friday's weaker-than-expected U.S. employment data.

Data released Friday showed U.S. non-farm payrolls rose by 142,000 in September, considerably lower than the 203,000 jobs the markets had expected.

The lackluster jobs report, which also showed a stall in U.S. hourly wage growth, fueled doubts that the world's largest economy was robust enough to withstand a rate hike before year-end.

The possibility of the Fed delaying the lift-off date for rates also meant its loose policy, which has helped shore up risk assets globally by providing cheap cash, would continue a little longer. The Dow <.DJI> and S&P 500 <.SPX> both gained more than 1 percent Friday after initially shedding more than 1.5 percent.

"The print will completely rule out this month for a rate rise in the U.S. and will put the December meeting in doubt. The market reactions to the non-farm payrolls are unmistakable – they see it as a trend and have recycled the 2012 to 2014 adage of, 'bad news is good news'," wrote Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG in Melbourne.

Taking an early lead from Wall Street, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was up 0.7 percent. South Korea's Kospi <.KS11> rose 0.6 percent and Australian shares <.AXJO> gained 1.9 percent.

Tokyo's Nikkei <.N225> jumped 1 percent.

Safe-haven government bonds were up on the downbeat U.S. jobs data, with benchmark 10-year Treasury yields dropping to near 6-week lows on Friday. German Bund yields dropped to 4-month troughs.

In currencies, the greenback was on the defensive, with the dollar index <.DXY> treading water at 95.907 after losing 0.4 percent overnight.

The dollar was little changed at 119.975 yen after gyrating between 120.415-119.90 yen on Friday in the wake of choppy post-U.S. jobs data trade.

The euro was steady at $1.1217 , climbing to as high as $1.1319 on Friday, a 10-day peak.

Crude oil prices dipped slightly early on Monday following a rally on Friday. U.S. crude futures were down 0.5 percent at $45.31 after surging 1.8 percent on Friday when a report of a continuing U.S. oil rig count helped offset the weak employment data. [O/R]

Gold stood tall after surging 2.2 percent overnight as the weak U.S. jobs data dented rate hike hopes and worked against the dollar. Spot gold was steady at $1,137.20 an ounce after Friday's surge.- Reuters