S&P 500 opens at all-time high

HONG KONG – Stock markets have risen risk appetite revived following strong United States job figures that bolstered expectations of faster growth in the world’s biggest economy.

Currently, the major averages remain in negative territory.

The S&P 500 index’s healthcare index rose 0.49 per cent, helped by a 26 percent jump in Endo International and a 3 per cent rise in Mylan.

The decline in oil weighed on energy shares in the S&P 500, the sector with the biggest declines of the index on Tuesday.

Traders may also have been more focused on the Olympic Games in Brazil amid another relatively quiet day on Wall Street.

Investors mostly shrugged off a report that US productivity unexpectedly fell in the second quarter, which could affect companies’ ability to maintain recent robust hiring. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.2%.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said unit labor costs surged up by 2.0 percent in the second quarter after edging down by a revised 0.2 percent in the first quarter.

Economists had expected inventories to come in unchanged compared to the 0.1 percent uptick that had been reported for the previous month.

The Nasdaq Composite narrowly logged its second record closing high of 2016 on Tuesday, even as weak productivity data curbed stock-market gains.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday.

The information technology index.SPLRCT rose 0.23 percent, lifted by a 0.8 percent rise in Alphabet (GOOGL.O).

“There’s plenty of confidence over in the States, and that’s been helping Europe, but I’d still be on the defensive side concerning European markets and I’d be looking to sell rallies”, said Berkeley Futures’ associate director Richard Griffiths.

In the bond market, treasuries moved higher after ending the previous session almost flat. Globally, the Nikkei 225 jumped 2.4%, the Hang Seng rose 1.6%, the Shanghai Composite added 0.9%, the FTSE 100 increased 0.2% and the CAC 40 was up just 0.1%. “This good news brings the US central bank closer to a rate hike which is likely to happen before yearend, as the Federal Reserve is forced to break policy with the Central Banks of Europe, Japan, and England”.