Investors await the key US jobs report

Investors’ focus on Friday will mainly be the release of the US government jobs report later in the afternoon. The report plays an important role in the interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank’s umbrella organization. With a strong labor market, the central bank has more room to raise interest rates further and keep them high for longer.

Earlier this week, better-than-expected U.S. job vacancies were released. This fueled interest rate scares. However, on Wednesday, a disappointing number came from payslip processor ADP about job growth in the US business community.

In Asia, green figures were seen ahead of the jobs report. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.5 percent, while Sydney’s All Ordinaries and Seoul’s Kospi rose 0.4 percent. However, the Nikkei was 0.3 percent lower in Tokyo.

Early indicators point to modest gains for European stock markets. On Thursday, key indicators in Paris and London showed gains of up to 0.6 percent, but the DAX lost 0.2 percent in Frankfurt. The Amsterdam AEX closed up 0.1 percent at 721.75 points.

Data on factory orders is reported from Germany. These rose 3.9 percent in August compared to a month earlier when orders fell more than 11 percent.

Chip companies in Tamrock can move the turnover figures of major Taiwanese chip maker TSMC, an important customer of chip machine maker ASML. For example, TSMC’s revenue fell 11 percent to $17 billion in the third quarter due to lower demand for chips for smartphones and computers.

Oil and gas group Shell gave an update on developments in the third quarter, including figures on production and gas trading. Shell is expected to benefit from increased energy prices in the latest period compared to the second quarter. Full results will be released on November 2.

Oil prices fell sharply this week on signs of weaker demand. On Wednesday, prices saw their sharpest drop in more than a year. On Friday morning, the price of US oil rose slightly to $ 82.38 a barrel, while Brent oil was almost at $ 84.09.

The euro was at $1.0535 by the end of European trading on Thursday.