* Investors brace for U.S. jobs data
* Equities generally higher, lifted by earnings
* Dollar flat, wheat jumps again
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Pending U.S. jobs data kept
investors on edge on Friday but not enough to stall the mid-year
rally in global equities boosted by robust earnings.
In commodities markets, U.S. wheat futures <Wc1> jumped
around 6 percent, taking weekly gains to some 25 percent after
Russia's move to temporarily halt grain shipments sparked a
buying frenzy. []
World stocks as measured by MSCI <.MIWD00000PUS> rose 0.3
percent for a gain of around 12 percent since the end of June.
The Thomson Reuters global stock index <.TRXFLDGLPU> rose 0.2
percent.
European shares led the way with the FTSEurofirst 300
<> gaining 0.4 percent.
Investor sentiment has been boosted by a series of generally
positive earnings reports, particularly from the banking sector.
Among the latest were part-nationalised RBS <RBS.L> in
Britain, which reported a second-quarter operating profit of 869
million pounds and Europe's biggest insurer Allianz <ALVG.DE>,
which missed expectations with second-quarter net profit of 1
billion euros ($1.31 billion) because of lower asset sales but
had stronger-than-expected operating profit.
The key focus on markets for the day, however, was the U.S.
non-farm payrolls report for July at 1230 GMT, which will act as
a snapshot of how strong or weak the U.S. economic recovery is.
"The U.S. data is very important. If the market reacts
positively and closes near a new high this week, then we have a
very good chance to go higher," said Giuseppe-Guido Amato,
strategist at Lang & Schwarz in Frankfurt.
Economists polled by Reuters expect Friday's U.S. Labor
Department report to show a drop of 65,000 in non-farm payrolls
in July, hurt by the unwinding of the government's hiring for
the census. Private employers, however, are expected to have
added 90,000 jobs. []
Data on Thursday showed new U.S. claims for unemployment
benefits unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level since
early April, pushing stocks on Wall Street lower.
[]
DOLLAR STEADY
The dollar hobbled near a 3 1/2-month low versus a currency
basket <.DXY> ahead of the U.S. jobs report.
Currencies overall were little changed as many traders
steered clear of big positions before the data, leaving the
dollar near a three-month low against the euro and an
eight-month trough versus the yen hit earlier in the week.
"We expect a (jobs) number slightly better than consensus,
but it's questionable whether this will help the dollar as
interest rates are so low and we have a divergence of softer
U.S. economic data and stronger European data," said Marcus
Hettinger, global currency strategist at Credit Suisse in
Zurich.
The euro <EUR=> was at $1.3191.
Euro zone government bond yields were slightly higher on the
day.
(Additional reporting by Atul Prakash and Naomi Tajitsu,
editing by Mike Peacock)
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