World Shares Mostly Gain Thursday      02/12 04:46

   World shares were mostly higher Thursday and benchmarks in Japan and South 
Korea reached new records after Wall Street wobbled following a 
better-than-expected U.S. job report.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- World shares were mostly higher Thursday and benchmarks in 
Japan and South Korea reached new records after Wall Street wobbled following a 
better-than-expected U.S. job report.

   U.S. futures edged higher. The future for the S&P 500 rose 0.3%, while that 
for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.4%.

   In Europe, Britain's FTSE gained 0.3% to 10,502.20 in early trading. 
Germany's DAX was up 1.3% to 25,169.49, while the CAC 40 in Paris gained 1% to 
8,398.82.

   Tokyo's Nikkei 225 surpassed the 58,000 mark early in the session as trading 
resumed after a holiday. However, it gave up those gains, edging just 10 points 
lower to 57,639.84.

   Japanese shares have rallied following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's 
landslide victory in a parliamentary election on Sunday, as investors expect 
more policies to help spur economic growth.

   South Korea's Kospi breached the 5,500 mark for the first time, driven by 
gains for technology-related stocks. It was up 3.1% at 5,522.27.

   Samsung Electronics, South Korea's biggest listed company, rose 6.4%. 
Chipmaker SK Hynix added 3.3%.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.9% to 27,032.54. The Shanghai Composite index 
edged less than 0.1% higher to 4,134.02.

   In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 picked up 0.3% to 9,043.50.

   On Wednesday, the S&P 500 was flat after initially moving toward an all-time 
high, closing 0.34 points lower, at 6,941.47. The Dow Jones Industrial Average 
fell 0.1% to 50,121.40. The Nasdaq composite dropped 0.2% to 23,066.47.

   A U.S. Labor Department report said U.S. employers added 130,000 jobs to 
their payrolls in January, way more than economists had forecast.

   The blockbuster U.S. non-farm payrolls report "strengthens the case for 
higher U.S. Treasury yields and a rebound in the dollar over the coming 
months," Jonas Goltermann, deputy chief markets economist at Capital Economics 
wrote in a note.

   The latest job report reflects that the U.S. labor market is stabilizing, he 
said, so the chance of another Fed rate cut over the next few months is "quite 
low."

   In the U.S. stock market, Robinhood Markets, the trading and investment app, 
lost 8.8% as investors focused on a slowdown in crypto trading that has weighed 
on the company. Bitcoin's price in recent days has fallen to roughly half of 
its record high set in October.

   Moderna fell 3.5%, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused to 
review its application for a new flu vaccine. Kraft Heinz was up 0.4%, as the 
company said it was pausing plans to split into two businesses.

   Shares of companies in the raw-material and energy sectors saw some of the 
bigger gains. Exxon Mobil rose 2.6%, while Smurfit Westrock surged 9.9%.

   In other dealings Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 15 cents to $64.48 
a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 16 cents to $69.24 per 
barrel.

   Gold and silver prices fell on Thursday. The price of gold was down 0.1% to 
$5,093.60 per ounce, and the price of silver fell 0.5% to about $83.50 an ounce.

   The U.S. dollar fell to 152.84 Japanese yen from 153.27 yen. The euro rose 
to $1.1888 from $1.1873.