* World stocks slip, focus on U.S. economy
* Wall Street set for losses
* Yen weaker after new finance minister's comments
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Equities came off the boil
globally on Thursday, after rising every day so far this year,
as investors stepped back to await key U.S. economic data at the
end of the week.
The dollar firmed, partly due to the yen softening after new
Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan said he wanted it to weaken
more.
Wall Street looked set to open lower.
Investors have entered 2010 in bullish form, taking stocks
to new 15-month highs in the United States, Japan and Europe.
But the mood is contingent on firm evidence that global economy
is recovering, particularly in the United States.
U.S. jobs data due on Friday is seen as key.
James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve
Bank, told an audience of university students in Shanghai that
the labour market in the United States was improving and the
economy was close to the point when the unemployment rate will
start to fall.
Stock investors, however, were playing it safe. MSCI's
all-country benchmark <.MIWD00000PUS> was down 0.4 percent after
gaining as much as 2.5 percent this week.
"It's a fine line between weak (U.S. job) numbers that would
revive doubts over the pace of the recovery, and surprisingly
strong numbers, which would raise fears of early interest rate
hikes," said Valerie Plagnol, chief strategist at CM-CIC
Securities, in Paris.
"But overall, the market has recently made spectacular
gains, so we shouldn't be reading too much into today's dip.
Some people are just taking profits."
Europe's FTSEurofirst 300 <> was down 0.4 percent.
Japan's Nikkei average <> closed down 0.46 percent.
Earlier, China's key stock index fell 1.9 percent after the
country's central bank surprised the market by raising the
auction yield of its three-month bills, a move seen as a
significant step-up in liquidity tightening.
Investors are also concerned about a number of structural
problems, not the least the state of some euro zone countries'
finances.
European officials were on the second day of an inspection
visit to Athens to discuss Greece's stability programme. Greece
has seen its debt downgraded but insists it does not need to be
bailed out by its EU partners.
WEAKER YEN?
The yen fell against the dollar and other currencies after
Japan's new finance minister stirred talk the country may be
more inclined to stem any sharp rise in the yen.
Speaking after being appointed finance minister, Kan said
many Japanese firms were in favour of the dollar/yen around 95
yen, higher than the pair has been trading in the latter part of
2009. []
The dollar was up more than three-quarters of a percent at
93.08 yen <JPY=>.
"His comments may mark a shift of Japanese FX policy towards
weakening the JPY, in our view," Barclays Capital said in a
note.
"Such a stance seems to be appropriate for Japan,
considering the weak growth prospects, particularly in the first
half of 2010, which will see less economic stimulus measures
and, therefore, a strong need for exports to push up the whole
economy."
Against a basket of major currencies <.DXY>, the dollar
gained a half a percent. The euro was down 0.6 percent at
$1.4325 <EUR=>.
Euro zone government bond yields were generally lower in
light of the stocks decline.
(Additional reporting by Brian Gorman and Blaise Robinson,
editing by Mike Peacock)
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