Markets brush off US payrolls disappointment

LONDON (AP) — Weak U.S. jobs figures failed to have much impact on global stocks Friday as the disappointment was assuaged by the recognition that the Federal Reserve won't reduce its monetary stimulus again in the near future. The dollar, however, suffered a big reverse.

The 74,000 increase in payrolls in December was the smallest since January 2011. The unemployment rate still fell, by 0.3 percentage points to 6.7 percent, but that was largely because people dropped out of the labor force.

Though the figures were disappointing for stock investors who had been counting on further U.S. economic strength, they likely mean the Fed will not reduce its stimulus any more than traders currently expect. The stimulus has been one of the major props to stocks over the past few years.

Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital, said the figures provide "some leeway for incoming Fed boss Janet Yellen to maintain existing policy settings, especially in providing dovish forward guidance on interest rates."

At its December policy meeting, the Fed decided to reduce its financial asset purchases by $10 billion to $75 billion from this month partly because of improvements in the labor market. Unlike many other central banks around the world, employment levels are a key component of the Fed's mandate.

Following the figures, stock markets in Europe were slightly down on where they were before while the main Wall Street indexes fell only modestly.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.8 percent at 6,743 while Germany's DAX rose 0.5 percent to 9,467. The CAC-40 in France was 0.5 percent higher at 4,246.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.2 percent at 16,407 while the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.1 percent to 1,836.

The dollar fared less well — currencies often bear the brunt of any knee-jerk response to economic indicators. The euro was 0.5 percent higher at $1.3672, around a cent up on where it was before the payrolls data. The dollar was 0.7 percent lower at 104.15 yen.

Earlier, in Asia, investors were spooked by a report showing a slowdown in China's exports.

Japan's Nikkei closed with a slight gain of 0.2 percent to 15,912.06 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose by 0.3 percent to 22,846.25. South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.4 percent to 1,938.54 and the Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.7 percent to 2,103.30. India's Sensex rose by 0.3 percent to 20,783.99.