GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks poised to rise as upbeat earnings trump jobs gloom

* U.S., Europe stocks rise ahead of dismal jobs report
* U.S. Treasuries grapple with deficit financing
* Fed Funds futures go negative

By David Henry
NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Asian stocks were set to track
Wall Street gains on Friday, after upbeat corporate earnings
took the focus off upcoming data that is expected show the worst
U.S. unemployment rate in more than 70 years.
Stock futures were up ahead of the Asia market open while
Thursday trading saw oil and the dollar give up earlier gains.
U.S. Treasuries prices rose despite massive deficit financing
and interest rate futures toying with the negative rates.
E-mini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 rose 0.3%. Japan's
Nikkei 225 futures NKc1 added 0.7%.
Australian S&P/ASX 200 futures YAPcm1 rose 0.1% in early
trading.
The upbeat sentiment follows gains of over 1% in main U.S.
and European stock indexes on Thursday.
Looming on the market horizon, however, is a report on
Friday that is expected to show that the U.S. April unemployment
rate jumped to 16% as people stayed home to thwart the spread of
the novel coronavirus.
"While the deterioration is known, many will be asking
whether risk sentiment can stand such a sticker shock," Tapas
Strickland of National Australia Bank said in note on Friday.
Markets have already had a taste of such weakness in weekly
claims for unemployment benefits that added up to some 33.5
million people over the past few weeks, roughly one of every
five American workers.
In currency trading, some booked profits from recent
greenback gains with the dollar index =USD falling 0.3% from a
two-week high on Thursday.
"It's a good time to take profits off the table ahead of
what is expected to be a historically bad jobs report," said Joe
Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business
Solutions in Washington. The euro EUR= was little changed at $1.0836.
Oil prices backed off with Brent LCOc1 futures down 26
cents, or 0.9%, at $29.46 a barrel, while U.S. crude CLc1 lost
44 cents, or 1.8%, to $23.55.
Brent had been up over 5% and U.S. crude up over 10% earlier
in the day, cheered by a surprise increase in China exports and
a rise in Saudi Arabia's official price for crude. U.S. Treasury yields fell on Thursday from three-week highs
as investors adjusted to a flood of new longer-dated debt
announced earlier in the week, part of the government's plan to
borrow $3 trillion this quarter, five times the previous
quarterly record. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note US10YT=RR fell to
0.633 late on Thursday from 0.713 the prior afternoon. The yield
on the 30-year bond US30YT=RR fell to 1.3156% late on Thursday
from 1.413% the prior afternoon.
Volatility hit the other end of the yield curve, where
federal funds futures began pricing in negative U.S. interest
rates for the first time. That came even as Federal Reserve
officials have said such a development would be bad for the
economy. Two-year yields also fell to record lows of 0.129%.

Gold jumped more than 2% on Thursday in what Bob Haberkorn,
senior market strategist at RJO Futur, called "pre-emptive
trading" in anticipating the weak U.S. jobs data. Spot gold XAU= was down 0.2% to $1,714.53 an ounce.
On Wall Street indexes climbed on Thursday, with the Nasdaq
erasing losses for 2020, following a clutch of upbeat earnings.
PayPal Holdings PYPL.O soared 14%. PayPal said it expects a strong recovery in payments volumes
in the second quarter as social distancing drives more people to
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