Investors were hesitant to make any major moves ahead of the government’s closely watched monthly jobs report, out Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.3 percent to 17,867.58.
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The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.1% to 135 as of 9:09 a.m.in Tokyo.
Drug stocks were among the biggest decliners, following another steep drop in shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
While the government’s monthly jobs report is always important to investors, there is additional focus on this month’s report. The Bank of England gave no sign on Thursday it was in a hurry to raise interest rates, predicting that inflation, now near zero, would pick up only slowly even if rates stay on hold all next year, and highlighting the increase in external risks to the United Kingdom economy over the past three months.
They said the possibility of an imminent interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve boosted the US dollar, as traders in the region took cues from Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s latest comment that “December would be a live possibility” for raising interest rates if the USA economy continued to perform well. She stressed that no decision has been made, and that a move in December would depend on how the economy fared between now and then. At that time, the minutes of the meeting showed that there was concern among Fed board members about the pace of economic recovery in the U.S.
“We’re a little below consensus”, said Jennifer Vail, head of fixed-income research at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Portland, Oregon. The dollar strengthened to 121.69 yen from 121.51 yen. It was down 1.4 percent at $1,087.70 by 1358 GMT.
Brent North Sea crude for December, the global benchmark for oil, dropped to $47.98 a barrel in London, down 60 cents from Wednesday s settlement.
GAS BUBBLE: Shares of natural gas producers rose sharply after the Energy Department reported that gas inventories rose less than expected.
The metal was heading for a 4.5 percent decline for the week, the sharpest such slide since June 2013 and was approaching a 5-1/2-year trough of $1,077 hit in July.
The greenback fell to a session low against the euro on Thursday after unexpectedly weak data on USA jobless claims but largely rebounded and was last up 0.02 percent at $1.0860.
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Yellen, Dudley and the other 15 Fed policymakers now have six weeks to analyse new data, debate and decide whether at their December 15-16 meeting to end the ultra-low interest rates set in response to the 2007-2009 economic crisis and recession.
