LONDON: World stocks clung to their 17-month highs on Friday and bonds paused after this week's rally ahead of U.S. jobs data, a gauge that could stoke or temper market expectations about aggressive policy easing by the Federal Reserve.
"Devastating new orders data just undermined any hopes for an industrial rebound. We are starting to lose our optimism," said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany. All eyes were now on U.S. non-farm payrolls, due later in the day, which are expected to have jumped by 160,000 in June compared with 75,000 in May.
"What today's report says about the trends in hiring and income growth could meaningfully impact market expectations so expect there to be just as much focus on hours and wages as the headline payrolls reading." The dollar index was steady at 96.823 though on track for a 0.8per cent gain this week. Against the Japanese yen , the dollar gained 0.2per cent to 108.04.