Stock Markets Updates

Asian stocks rose Friday as hopes for a global economic recovery drove up appetite for riskier assets, but traders were cautious ahead of U.S. monthly job data. Resource shares were among the leading gainers after oil prices surged to a seven-month high on hopes that the global recession had bottomed out.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls data due later in the day are expected to show U.S. employers cut 520,000 jobs in May, lower than 539,000 in April, but the unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in April. A much worse-than-expected report could dampen expectations that the worst is over for the global economy, hopes that have pushed stock markets from Seoul to London sharply higher since early March.