Shares inch higher ahead of US jobs data

World shares pushed higher ahead of US jobs data ​on Friday, while bond markets got some much-needed relief after a top Federal Reserve official cooled rate-hike expectations and dragged the dollar lower.
The dollar's retreat had run its course as the pre-payrolls doldrums set in, but it left the yen set for a weekly rise of 2.3 per cent — its best since late July, when Japan and the US conducted a rare joint intervention to halt a relentless slide in the Japanese currency.
Europe's main stock markets opened only fractionally higher, meanwhile, as renewed rises in both oil and the region's gas prices bolstered ECB rate-hike bets. Nasdaq futures climbed 0.4 per cent and S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 per cent.
In remarks for a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker event, Federal Reserve ⁠Governor Christopher Waller said that recent data suggested some signs of disinflation and that, if upcoming reports reinforced that trend, he would favour holding rates steady at this month's ⁠policy meeting.
Futures were quick to scale back the chance of a rate hike this month to just 50 per cent, from about 63 per cent a day ago. Those expectations had surged in recent sessions as a global bond rout drove long-dated yields to multi-year highs, fuelled by concerns over stubborn inflation, swelling government debt and geopolitical tensions. — Reuters