The White House believes unusual jobs data revisions prove the recently fired Bureau of Labor chief was manipulating statistics.

The labor statistics chief that President Trump fired Friday is a "terrific person, but the jobs data her agency produced has become "very unreliable," National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said Sunday.

The White House is defending President Donald Trump's surprise firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics chief Erika McEntarfer, amid rising concerns that it could damage trust in official U.S. economic data.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1.3%, bouncing back from bigger losses earlier in the day to finish at 40,290.70. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 0.9% to 24,733.45, while the Shanghai Composite index climbed nearly 0.7% to 3,583.31. In South Korea, the Kospi surged 0.9% to 3,147.75.

Stock markets dived Friday following weak US jobs data that raised doubts about the world's biggest economy as President Donald Trump moves forward with additional tariffs.