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HONG KONG - Asia's markets were mixed Friday as investor confidence took a blow from worse-than-expected jobs figures out of the United States that suggest a global recovery may not be as close as hoped.
Job losses in the world's largest economy surged to 467,000 in June, pushing the unemployment rate to a fresh 26-year high of 9.5 percent.
The gloomier-than-expected report dampened hopes that the US slump has hit bottom.
The news sent Tokyo stocks 0.61 percent lower. Sydney shares ended 1.27 percent down while Singapore's Straits Times Index closed 0.91 percent lower.
Wall Street tumbled 2.63 percent overnight.
However, the early losses in some markets gave way to bargain hunting, helping Hong Kong up 0.14 percent and Seoul rose 0.6 percent.
Europe's main stock markets weakened further on Friday after sliding a day earlier on US job loss news.
In late morning trading, London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares dropped 0.25 percent to 4,223.88 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 declined 0.36 percent to 4,701.29 points and the Paris CAC 40 shed 0.49 percent to 3,101.28 points nearing the half-way stage.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares slid 0.33 percent to 2,361.83 points.
On the foreign exchange market, the European single currency fell to 1.3988 dollars.
"There's a 'morning after the day before' feeling in the UK stock market today, still reeling after yesterday's surprise jump in US unemployment," said IG Index chief market strategist David Jones.
"With the Americans off on holiday celebrating Independence Day, we are probably facing a directionless day."
New York stock markets were closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday weekend.
Investors in Europe also digested data that showed retailers in the 16 nations using the euro saw their sales fall in May, renewing a slump that was broken in April by a short-lived improvement.
The volume of retail sales in the eurozone dipped 0.4 percent in May over one month and 3.3 percent over one year, the European Union's Eurostat data agency said on Friday.
The European Central Bank had on Thursday kept its main interest rate steady at a record low of 1.0 percent, as ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet downplayed a threat of deflation gutting the eurozone.
Economists are concerned the 16-nation bloc's economy will struggle to recover from recession if consumer prices fall broadly over a sustained period.
Meanwhile in London on Friday, the media sector rose strongly after a broker upgrade. Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier jumped 3.13 percent to 453.75 pence and advertising giant WPP gained 1.30 percent to 389.5 pence.
"An investment bank upgrade on the media sector is thought to be the reason behind the move," said analyst Jones.
- AFP/ir
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