Asia shares strike seven-month high ahead of US jobs data

SINGAPORE: Asian stocks rose to a seven-month peak on Friday, tracking global peers as investors cheered the prospect of an imminent rate easing cycle led by major central banks, keeping the dollar and Treasury yields under pressure.

Japan remained an outlier as expectations mount that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) could finally exit negative interest rates this month. That lit a fire under the yen and sent domestic bond yields rising.