Job growth in the US was the strongest in a year and a half in February, posting 313,000 new jobs for the month. Wage growth, on the other hand, advanced at a slower pace, up 2.6 per cent year-on-year compared to 2.8 per cent recorded in January. US markets are taking the news as a confirmation of economic strength with US equities opening into gains and less risky assets such as US government debt being sold as risk appetite increases. The largely positive economic data has also raised expectations that the US Federal Reserve will be more likely to hike interest rates as much as four times throughout the year, although the more muted wage growth figure has, so far, kept the US dollar from making much progress one way or the other against its peers.