* Dollar shaky after big falls in previous session ahead of
payrolls
* European shares open steady, on course for 3rd week of
loss
* MSCI Asia ex-Japan falls to fresh six-month lows
* Volatile Nikkei keeps dollar jittery vs yen
By Marc Jones
LONDON, June 7 (Reuters) – The dollar was under pressure on
Friday and shares were on track for a third straight week of
losses as markets suffered an uneasy run-up to U.S. jobs data
later in the session.
The dollar hovered near a 3-1/2 month low against a basket
of currencies and stabilised against the yen at 96.85 yen
after its biggest fall against the Japanese currency in three
years on Thursday.
European shares opened little changed as they
failed to see any rebound from sharp falls in the previous
session which had pushed them to 6-week lows. Japanese equities
had plunged to two-month lows in Asian trading.
That reflected tension ahead of U.S. non-farm payrolls
figures which are seen as key to the Federal Reserve’s
stimulus programme after talk this week has intensified about it
being scaled back in the coming months.
“Over the very short run there might be some relief (from
payrolls) but the general theme is that … we seem to be losing
our mantra that central banks will help us all the way,” said
Gerhard Schwarz, head of equity strategy at Baader Bank.
“We are heading for increased volatility and some kind of
topping out process over the next couple of weeks, but at some
point probably there will a 10 percent correction coming into
the equity market, and possibly deeper into the third quarter.”
In the debt market, safe-haven German Bunds edged higher but
trade was expected to be choppy going into the U.S. data.
Economists polled by Reuters expected to see a 170,000 increase
in non-farm payrolls this month.
