* Global stocks end slightly higher
* U.S. dollar rises against yen, euro recovers
* U.S jobs data on Friday in focus
(Updates with U.S. market close)
By Al Yoon
NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Global stocks eked out slight
gains on Wednesday after U.S. services sector data supported a
slow but steady recovery and lifted the U.S. dollar against the
Japanese yen.
Trading across most asset classes remained thin, however,
as traders refrained from taking fresh positions before a
Friday report on the U.S. labor market. Employment is seen the
keystone to the the economic recovery story that since March
has helped drive world stocks up to 15-month highs.
The U.S. Institute for Supply Management said its index of
service sector activity index rose to 50.1 from 48.7 in
November. The reading by the private U.S. industry group was
below economists' expectations of 50.5, but indicated
expansion. For details, see []
"The trend is our friend," said Torsten Slok, a senior
economist at Deutsche Bank in New York. "The sign that the
service sector is improving is a sign that the things are
moving in the right direction."
Global shares held firm after the U.S. ADP Employer
Services report showed a bigger-than-expected slowdown in job
losses in December. The ADP data is a precursor to the closely
watched government non-farm payrolls report, where economists
expect a loss of 8,000 jobs for the month.
[][].
World stocks as measured by MSCI <.MIWO00000PUS> inched up
0.17 percent to 1,194.91, their highest level since the darkest
days of the financial crisis in September 2008. Earlier in the
session, this index hit a fresh 52-week high at 1,196.42,
Reuters data showed.
Earlier in the session, two of the three major U.S. stock
indexes hit fresh 52-week highs. The S&P 500 climbed as high as
1,139.19, while the Nasdaq rose as high as 2,314.07.
But Wall Street traded flat at the close in New York. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average <> rose 1.66 points, or 0.02
percent, to 10,573.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX>
rose just 0.62 point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,137.14 and the
Nasdaq Composite Index <> dropped 7.62 points, or 0.33
percent, to 2,301.09.
European shares rebounded from losses. The FTSEurofirst 300
<> rose 0.06 percent to 1,061.01. Earlier, Japan's Nikkei
gained 0.46 percent to 10,731.45, a 15-month closing high.
The U.S. dollar rose against the yen on Wednesday, after
the yen weakened in the wake of the resignation of Japanese
Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Deputy Prime
Minister Naoto Kan will become finance minister, with Fujii --
one of the few experienced members of the novice Democratic
Party-led government -- resigning due to ill health.
At 4:16 p.m. in New York, the dollar <JPY=> rose 0.64
percent to 92.31 yen.
The euro took a brief battering on Wednesday on worries the
European Union would not rescue fiscally struggling Greece.
European Central Bank officials were to visit Athens over
the next few days to discuss Greece's financial difficulties,
but foreign exchange markets were stirred up by a media report
quoting ECB executive board member Juergen Stark as saying
Greece would not be bailed out.
Stark's reported comments flew in the face of what EU
leaders have suggested, however, and the euro recovered most of
its poise.
The euro <EUR=> rose 0.32 percent to $1.4414. The dollar
slipped against a basket of trading-partner currencies, with
the U.S. Dollar Index <.DXY> off 0.21 percent at 77.454.
Overshadowing markets was the investor apathy ahead of more
confirmation that the world economy, and particularly the
United States, is recovering in a sustainable manner.
As a result, much of the focus this week is on the monthly
U.S. jobs data due on Friday.
"The U.S. jobs data on Friday will be important, but the
feedback you are getting shows that the trend is clearly
improving," said Bernard McAlinden, investment strategist at
NCB Stockbrokers in Dublin.
U.S. Treasuries prices fell on Wednesday, ending a two-day
recovery as investors grew nervous before the jobs report,
which according to some economists may show the first month of
jobs growth since December 2007.
The yield of the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note
<US10YT=RR> climbed 0.06 percentage point to 3.82 percent. Its
price was down 16/32 point to 96-10/32.
A return to job growth could challenge bond investors'
assumption that weak consumer activity will keep inflation in
check and allow the Federal Reserve to hold its target interest
rate low for some time to come.
In energy and commodities prices, U.S. light sweet crude
oil <CLc1> rose $1.38, or 1.69 percent, to $83.15 per barrel,,
and spot gold prices <XAU=> rose $19.80, or 1.77 percent, to
$1138.40.
(Additional reporting by Atul Prakash, Jeremy Gaunt and
Burton Frierson)
(To read Reuters Global Investing Blog click on
http://blogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting; for the MacroScope
Blog click on http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope; for Hedge
Hub click on http://blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub)
