NOTHING, it seems, can get the bulls down. Not President Donald Trump's abrupt pullout of the US from the Paris climate change accord. Not surprisingly soft jobs data on Friday. And not the uncertainty surrounding another critical European election.

The US economy added only 138,000 jobs in May, according to the Labor Department. While the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3 per cent, the lowest level since 2001, it fell "for the wrong reasons", said analysts at brokerage Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The participation rate of people in the US work force contracted, suggesting that older or uneducated workers were giving up their job searches. The only logical reason to buy economically sensitive shares in the wake of that report was a hope that it would delay rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. But analysts said that it was a vain hope.

"At this point, the Fed will most likely look through the weakness and raise rates at the June 14 meeting but continued weakness could alter their outlook on the path of rates," said the BOA Merrill Lynch analysts