Silver fell 23 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $19.65 an ounce. The S&P utility index ended up 1.5% in its largest daily percentage gain since the end of June.
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First Quantum Minerals Ltd. advanced 2.5 per cent to $12.25.
The offshore yuan was trading at 6.6324 per dollar, 0.09 percent weaker than the onshore spot. In Australia, ASX All Ordinaries Index declined 0.34%, while South Korea’s Kospi Index added 0.27%.
Strong recent U.S.jobs growth and a long-awaited return of middle-wage employment are two positive signs for the US labor market, an influential Federal Reserve policymaker said on Thursday, appearing to reinforce his more confident message on a possible interest-rate hike.
“We are edging closer towards the point in time when it will be appropriate to raise rates further”, he said. Power company Dominion Resources Inc. rose 2.6%, the most in five months.
Energy stocks provided the biggest sector boost as Brent crude futures rose above $50 per barrel, touching a six-week high.
Still, fresh hawkish comments hit the tape on Thursday. US light crude oil was up $1.02 at $47.81.
Investors and traders looking for clues about whether that rate increase will come in September, or later in the year, will now focus on next week’s annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. However, analysts were doubtful on the prospects of an agreement.
The Fed left rates unchanged at its last meeting in July but said near-term risks to the economy had diminished, leaving the door open for a possible rate hike this year.
“Some other participants viewed recent economic developments as indicating that labour market conditions were at or close to those consistent with maximum employment and expected that the recent progress in reaching the committee’s inflation objective would continue, even with further steps to gradually remove monetary policy accommodation”, the minutes also showed.
The yen has been on a tear since wild market volatility at the start of the year and Britain’s June vote to quit the European Union pushed investors into the currency, seen as a safe bet in times of turmoil.
The U.S. dollar strengthened after the release of the minutes, while U.S. stocks and prices of shorter-dated U.S. Treasuries pared losses.
Germany’s 10-year bond yield declined two basis points to minus 0.05 percent, while the U.K.’s was at 0.56 percent.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index, which had fallen in the last four sessions on a run of weak company earnings, was up 0.5 per cent.
Bets that central banks from Asia to Europe and the USA will remain accommodative boosted global equities to a one-year high this month and sent the dollar tumbling.
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Japan’s Nikkei broke the trend though, dropping 1.5 percent after data showed exports from the country falling at their fastest pace since the financial crisis.
