Overnight

Blamed it on the strong U.S. jobs report. That's what gurus are saying abut the overnight rally in Japanese socks. The Nikkei was up 2.1 percent at 16,592.05 points, after touching a 1-week high of 16,612.13. The broader Topix climbed 1.6 percent to 1,299.93 and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 rose 1.6 percent to 11,699.42. Chinese markets traded slightly lower, with the Shanghai composite down 0.07 percent and the Shenzhen composite off by 0.23 percent

 The Korean Kospi rallied 0.2%, the Australian ASX 200 was up 0.8% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng gained 1.1% The WSJ reported: Nonfarm payrolls in the U.S. rose by a seasonally adjusted 255,000 in July, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday. An economists’ survey by The Wall Street Journal had expected employers would add 179,000 jobs. Analysts say the data signal that the U.S. economy, while stable, isn’t strong enough to signal higher interest rates. The upbeat U.S. data led to the dollar trading higher against the yen, lifting the shares of major financial firms and exporters in Japan. A weaker yen helps Japanese exporters.

Despite what many think gold might losing its stepchild status as more prominent investors seem to be touting the yellow metal. Gold was also higher on Monday, after spot gold retreated on Friday by nearly 2 percent on the back of the strong U.S. jobs report. As of 10:35 a.m. HK/SIN, spot gold traded up 0.13 percent at $1,336.86. The precious metal had been trading at levels near a two-year high, with several prominent investors, including Bill Gross, favoring the commodity.