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
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