Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

For only the second time since 2006, emerging-market stocks headed for a 10th day of losses as better-than-estimated U.S. jobs data signaled quicker prospects for an interest-rate increase and Greek debt talks looked like breaking down. Currencies reversed gains.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index dropped 0.7 percent to 981.59 at 8:35 a.m. in New York, for the longest streak of losses since November 2013. The measure traded below its 200-day moving average for a third day as Greece deferred a debt payment to the International Monetary Fund and rejected demands for more austerity to receive bailout funds. A U.S. report on non-farm payrolls showed hiring increased in May by more than 200,000 for the 13th month out of the last 14, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Greece’s benchmark equity index slumped the most in almost four months, led by banks. Egypt’s EGX 30 Index and the Czech Republic’s PX Index fell at least 1.3 percent each. The gauge of Chinese companies traded in Hong Kong lost 1.5 percent, even as the Shanghai Composite Index rose above 5,000 for the first time in seven years.

South Africa’s rand and Hungary’s forint weakened 1.7 percent against the dollar, leading a gauge of 20 emerging- market currencies tracked by Bloomberg lower by 0.6 percent. Polish bond yields jumped to the highest since September.

The 280,000 advance in U.S. payrolls last month exceeded the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey and followed a revised 221,000 April increase, figures from the Labor Department showed in Washington. The median forecast called for a 226,000 May gain. The unemployment rate crept up to 5.5 percent as more people entered the labor force, while hourly earnings rose from a year ago by the most since August 2013.