Reuters – European shares climbed on Friday while most Asian shares fell as investors sought to balance economic worries with a new era of lower interest rates ahead of key U.S. jobs data.
Oil dropped briefly below $60 a barrel before bouncing back to nearly $62 and the dollar was generally weaker.
The latest U.S. non-farm payrolls report is widely expected to show the world’s largest economy continuing to bleed jobs. The median forecast of economists polled by Reuters last week is for payrolls losses of 200,000 in October.
Investors have found few consistent havens except for the yen and some government bonds, with the financial crisis expected to see the world’s developed economies headed for the first full-year contraction since World War Two.
