Indian shares are seen opening higher on Monday as investors weigh strong U.S. jobs data against climbing oil prices and rising Covid-19 cases in the country.
Oil surged above $71 a barrel in Asian trading after a missile attack on facilities owned by energy giant Aramco in Saudi Arabia and on optimism about the demand outlook.
Six states across India are reporting high daily Covid-19 cases, but Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the country is in the end game of the pandemic.
Separately, a top American scientist has said that the Covid-19 vaccine rollout is "India's gift'' to the world in combating the virus.
RBI governor Shaktikanta Das is optimistic about India's growth prospects but cautioned that there is a divergence between the real fundaments of the economy and certain segments of the financial markets.
Asian stocks remain mostly higher this morning and the dollar held near three-month highs, as the U.S. Senate passed President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan and data showed China's February exports grew at a record pace from a year earlier.
U.S. stocks fluctuated before ending sharply higher on Friday as bond yields steadied after spiking early in the session on the back up upbeat jobs data offering evidence of an economy recovering from the effects of Covid-19.
Non-farm payroll employment jumped by 379,000 jobs in February after climbing by an upwardly revised 166,000 jobs in January due to a rebound in employment in the leisure and hospitality industry, the Labor Department said.
Economists had expected employment to increase by 182,000 jobs compared to the uptick of 49,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. The unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 6.2 percent from 6.3 percent in January.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq hit its lowest intraday level in nearly three months before rebounding to end 1.6 percent higher, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.9 percent and the S&P 500 added 2 percent.
European stocks closed lower on Friday as bond yields rose on inflation expectations after comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
The pan European Stoxx 600 shed 0.8 percent. The German DAX lost 1 percent, France's CAC 40 index gave up 0.8 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 eased 0.3 percent.
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