INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Wall Street has been preoccupied with second-guessing United States August jobs data due out on FridayLondon: Record-high world stocks
slowed their charge on Thursday as concerns grew over the Chinese economy after a run of soft data, while the risk of a sub-par United
States payrolls report kept the dollar on the defensive.A raft of Asian manufacturing surveys overnight had suggested supply bottlenecks
were still tightening, while in Europe Spanish unemployment fell again, Swiss GDP data disappointed and Hungary producer price inflation
came in at an eye-watering 14.8%.The pan-European STOXX 600 index crawled up 0.3% supported by travel, oil, car and chemicals companies
although signs of slowing global growth and a ninth day in the last 10 of gains for the euro limited the rises.Wall Street futures were
pointing modestly higher again while expectations that global stimulus will remain abundant also helped crytocurrency bitcoin get back above
$50,000."The market seems to be believing Fed policymakers at the moment that inflation is transitory," Legal - General Investment
Management portfolio manager Justin Onuekwusi said, referring to signals that the United States central bank will only remove stimulus very
gradually."That implies a lower-for-longer (interest rate) environment" he added, which benefits markets, especially technology stocks which
have the most growth appeal.The combined market caps of Google, Apple , Facebook and Amazon - dubbed GAFA by some acronmyn-loving analysts -
is now larger than Japan's entire Topix index, which has nearly 2,200 companies as well as London's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX.In
Asia, the uncertainty over still-low vaccination rates in many ASEAN economies and China's zero-tolerance COVID-19 strategy had kept
Chinese blue-chips flat, though speculation about more fiscal stimulus offered some support.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares
outside Japan eased 0.1% from a five-week high
Japan's Nikkei added 0.3%, South Korea fell 1%, whereas Hong Kong's battered tech index enjoyed a fourth day of unbroken gains.Nasdaq
futures and S-P 500 futures were starting to creep up too, having risen again on Wednesday despite some late wobbles and more evidence that
major carmakers like General Motors were facing serious microchip shortages.Wall Street has been preoccupied with second-guessing United
States August jobs data due out on Friday, with the task made all the more uncertain by a disappointing reading on ADP private payrolls but
a solid ISM survey of manufacturing.Median forecasts are for a strong rise of 750,000 jobs, but they range from 375,000 to 1.02 million with
the ADP report prompting speculation the risks are to the downside.A soft non-farm payrolls number could be positive for risk assets,
however, since it would lessen pressure for early tapering from the Federal Reserve."A print closer to 400k rather than 800k effectively
means that the Fed's condition of "further substantial progress" in the labour market will take longer to materialise, thus delaying the
tapering decision from September to November," said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at NAB."Bad news in the labour market are good
news for risk assets given the punchbowl will remain well liquefied for a bit longer."ECB HAWKS SWOOPAmid the jobs chatter, 10-year Treasury
yields eased back under 1.30% and away from the recent top of 1.375%, while the United States dollar index touched a one-month low.The euro
also reached its highest since early August at $1.1856 and was last steady at $1.1845.The single currency was aided by hawkish comments from
German central bank chief Jens Weidmann, who cautioned against inflation risks and called for a slowdown in the European Central Bank's
ECB policymakers meet next week.In contrast, the Bank of Japan shows no sign of tapering its massive purchases as the economy remains mired
in a decades-long battle with deflation.That all helped keep the dollar firm at 110.00 yen and comfortably within the tight 108.71 to 110.79
range that has lasted for the past two months.Commodities would likely benefit from any delay in Fed tapering, helping underpin gold at
$1,812 an ounce but short of resistance around $1,823.Oil prices eased after OPEC+ agreed to stick to a policy of adding 400,000 barrels per
day a month to the market, though it also defied pressure for an even larger increase."Ignoring calls from the White House for further
barrel increases, we think that OPEC+ will stay on this current course unless there is a clear deterioration in the demand outlook," said
analysts at RBC Capital Markets in a note."Moreover, we reiterate that if there is a price bias for the majority of the OPEC+ membership, it
is to the upside given the high fiscal breakevens of member states."Brent regained some traction in London trading to sit at $71.60 a
barrel, while United States crude bobbed around $68.50.(This story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is auto-generated
