Asian stocks rose while the dollar held gains, with a gauge measuring the U.S. currency against major peers headed for its biggest weekly advance since January, before data on the U.S. jobs market. Oil in New York climbed.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.5 percent by 11:40 a.m. in Tokyo, paring its first drop in five weeks. Japan’s Topix index is heading for a more-than seven-year high. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures were little changed after the gauge rose for the first time in three days. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is up 1 percent this week, with the greenback near an 11-year high to the euro. U.S. oil has gained 2.8 percent this week.
A gauge of global equities is less than 1 percent from an intraday record struck Feb. 26 after the European Central Bank clarified a plan for buying 60 billion euro ($66 billion) of assets a month from Monday. Friday’s payrolls report may offer clues to the timing of U.S. rate increases, after new claims for jobless benefits rose to a nine-month high. Diverging outlooks of the U.S. and other countries have seen the dollar rise against most global peers this year.
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