Before the latest US jobs report, Asian stock markets were mixed.

 

Asian stock markets were mixed on Friday before the U.S. jobs report, which could change the Federal Reserve's plans for more interest rate hikes to stop inflation from rising too fast.

Tokyo and Hong Kong went backward, while Seoul and Shanghai moved forward. The price of a barrel of oil went up by more than $1.50.

Investors were waiting for U.S. data on hiring in August to see how the economy is reacting to the four rate hikes that were made to cool inflation, which is at its highest level in four decades. A strong reading would give Fed officials more reason to say that interest rates need to go up to slow down the economy and stop prices from going up too fast.

Yeap Jun Rong of IG said in a report that if the numbers show that more than 300,000 jobs were added in August, it "could likely strengthen further lean towards" a rate hike of up to 0.75 percentage points at the Fed meeting this month.

The Shanghai Composite Index went up 0.1% to 3,189.09, while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo went down 0.2% to 27,604.37. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.8% to 19,443.49.

On Thursday, the Chinese government told most of Chengdu's 21 million people to stay home because of new virus outbreaks. This made things even worse as the area tried to get back to normal after rationing power because of a drought that left hydroelectric dam reservoirs empty, but economists say the effect on the economy of the whole country should be small.

The S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney went down less than 0.1% to 6,844.80, while the Kospi in Seoul went up less than 0.1% to 2,417.25. Singapore got worse, while New Zealand and Jakarta got better.

On Wall Street, the main S&P 500 index went up 0.3%, to 3,966.85, after going down for four days in a row.

It lost 4.2% in August after going up the month before because people thought the Fed might slow down on rate hikes because there were signs that the U.S. economy was slowing down and inflation might be leveling off.

These hopes were dashed last week when Fed chair Jerome Powell said that rates need to stay high "for a while" to slow down the economy. Many investors only want to know how much and when the next increase will be.

The Labor Department said on Tuesday that there were two jobs for every person who was unemployed in July. This gives Fed officials more reasons to say that rates should go up. On Thursday, it was reported that the number of people filing for unemployment fell last week, which is another sign of a strong job market.

At the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5%, at 31,656.42. The Nasdaq fell 0.3% to 11,785.13. This was the fifth drop in a single day.

Stocks in health care companies, companies that depend on direct consumer spending, and companies that provide communication services all went up. Johnson & Johnson went up 2.5%. Target made 2.8% more money, and Netflix made 2.9% more.

Stocks in technology fell.

Nvidia fell 7.7% after a chipmaker said that the U.S. government had put in place licensing rules that could stop sales to China.

During electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of benchmark U.S. crude rose by $1.65 to $88.26 per barrel. Thursday, the contract fell $2.94 and was worth $86.61.

Brent crude, whose price is used to trade oil around the world, went up by $1.64 per barrel in London, to $94. It fell $3.28 in the last session and is now worth $92.36 per barrel.

From 140.23 yen on Thursday, the dollar was worth 140.32 yen on Friday. It went up from 99.45 cents to 99.60 cents.