TOKYO: Asian stocks are expected to fall on Friday, Jan 7 after U.S. stocks weakened the day before as soft retail sales and a sharp rise in the dollar left investors edgy before December's U.S. employment report.
The main Wall Street indexes were mixed in a narrow range, with the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index both losing 0.2 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.3 percent.
Given a rise of about 8 percent in the S&P 500 since the start of December, investors could be looking for an excuse to sell stocks if the jobs report on Friday falls short of forecasts that were raised after Wednesday's strong private-sector payroll report.
Commodity stocks will likely be hit by oil prices, which tumbled more than 2 percent on Thursday to below $89 a barrel as the stronger greenback and weaker U.S. equities deterred buyers.
Gold fell for a fourth consecutive session on Thursday as the dollar rose on signs the U.S. economic outlook was improving, but technical buying lifted prices off their lows.
British shares weakened 0.4 percent, while European stocks lost 0.42 percent.
Asian stocks listed on Wall Street lost 0.24 percent.
The euro slumped to a five-week low against the dollar on Thursday, breaching a key support level, with more losses seen if the upcoming jobs data proves stronger than expected.
Japanese markets are set to drop a tad, with Nikkei futures traded in Chicago closing at 10,520, compared with 10,530 in Osaka.
Australian stocks are expected to fall hit by lower commodity prices, with share price index futures falling 0.1 percent to 4707.0, lower than the close of the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index at 4724.983. - Reuters
The main Wall Street indexes were mixed in a narrow range, with the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index both losing 0.2 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.3 percent.
Given a rise of about 8 percent in the S&P 500 since the start of December, investors could be looking for an excuse to sell stocks if the jobs report on Friday falls short of forecasts that were raised after Wednesday's strong private-sector payroll report.
Commodity stocks will likely be hit by oil prices, which tumbled more than 2 percent on Thursday to below $89 a barrel as the stronger greenback and weaker U.S. equities deterred buyers.
Gold fell for a fourth consecutive session on Thursday as the dollar rose on signs the U.S. economic outlook was improving, but technical buying lifted prices off their lows.
British shares weakened 0.4 percent, while European stocks lost 0.42 percent.
Asian stocks listed on Wall Street lost 0.24 percent.
The euro slumped to a five-week low against the dollar on Thursday, breaching a key support level, with more losses seen if the upcoming jobs data proves stronger than expected.
Japanese markets are set to drop a tad, with Nikkei futures traded in Chicago closing at 10,520, compared with 10,530 in Osaka.
Australian stocks are expected to fall hit by lower commodity prices, with share price index futures falling 0.1 percent to 4707.0, lower than the close of the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index at 4724.983. - Reuters
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