Trade at Asia's stock markets is being conducted at a mixed trend this morning, with a tendency towards index rises, led by the Australian commodities market, although the Tokyo stock exchange is declining due to disappointing reports and concerns of a possible escalation of violence against the protesters in Egypt. As such, the Tokyo stock exchange descended by 0.3%, Sydney climbed 0.5%, and Mumbai ascended 1.2%. Stock markets in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam have been closed today for the Chinese New Year.
Despite the announcement made by Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak that his rule will be coming to an end and the calls made by the country's military leadership to end the protests, Egypt's capital turned yesterday into the arena of a fierce struggle between protesters and the president's supporters as it became clear that both opposition parties and the protesters in the streets are rejecting President's Mubarak's announcement. The United States dollar, considered a refuge for investors in crisis, strengthens against the world's leading currencies on the background of concerns over the possibility of an escalation of the uprising in Egypt. The United States dollar strengthens against the Euro by 0.2%, reaching a level of 1.3795 United States dollars for one Euro. The American currency climbs 0.5% against the Japanese Yen, reaching a level of 81.6 Japanese Yen for one United Sates dollar, while rising by 0.1% against the British pound to a level of 1.617 United States dollars for one British pound.
In the American macroeconomic sphere, according to data published yesterday by the ADP human resources company, the private sector added more jobs than expected in January. According to the data, 187 thousand jobs have been added to the private sector in January – more than the growth of 140 thousand jobs predicted by economists, although less than the 247 thousand jobs added to the private sector in December.
Tomorrow the Department of Labor will publish unemployment statistics for January. Economists predict that the number of job in the United States labor market grew by a monthly 140 thousand last month, but that the rate of unemployment rose to 9.5% after declining surprisingly to 9.4% in December.
