TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) - Japanese shares advanced on Monday, as a strong finish last week on Wall Street boosted investor sentiment ahead of earnings reports from domestic automakers and other major firms this week. The Nikkei share average rose 0.96% to 29,640.01 by 0154 GMT, while the broader Topix jumped 1.14% to 1,955.07 The Dow and the S&P 500 hit record closing highs on Friday after unexpectedly slow growth in the U.S. jobs market eased concerns over prospects for rising rates. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes plunged to a two-month low of 1.4690% on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT “The U.S. market gained on speculation that low interest rates will continue for a prolonged period of time, and that also lifted today’s Japanese market,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management. “On the other hand, investors are waiting to confirm the outlook of major firms, particularly they want to see the impact of chip shortage on automakers.” Japanese automakers are set to report their earnings this week, starting with Nissan Motor on Tuesday and Toyota Motor on Wednesday, the same day as SoftBank Group . Toyota gained 1.87%, while Nissan jumped 3.85%. SoftBank Group rose 1.95%. ADVERTISEMENT Nippon Steel advanced 4.13% after issuing annual profit forecast above analysts estimate last week, helping the sector index gain 3.76%. JFE Holdings and Daido Steel jumped 6.03% and 5.73%, respectively. Daiichi Sankyo gained the most among the top 30 core Topix names, rising 5.11%, followed by Sony Group, jumping 4.01%. The underperformers among the Topix 30 were Seven & i Holdings, down 1.63%, followed by Keyence Corp , losing 0.21%. (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)