Asian stocks
slipped on Thursday after Wall Street continued to pull back from record
highs ahead of Friday's closely-watched U.S. jobs data, while the
nervous euro languished at an 11-year low prior to the European Central
Bank's policy meeting.
MSCI's broadest index of
Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shed 0.4 percent with
Thai, Malaysian and Chinese stocks posting losses.
Still, optimism stemming from widespread monetary easing supported the region's other stock markets.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 edged up 0.2 percent and South Korea's Kospi .KS11 was up 0.2 percent.
Risk asset markets, shored up by liquidity provided by easing-minded central banks around the world, will have a chance to confirm the ECB's easing stance when it holds a policy meeting later in the session.
The ECB, which starts its quantitative easing (QE), or bond-buying, program of more than 1 trillion euros this month, is expected to detail the plan after the meeting.
Edgy before the ECB's announcement on details of its QE scheme, the euro fell as far as $1.1055 EUR=, a low not seen since September 2003.
"It is the reminder of this divergence that has driven EUR/USD to fresh 11-year lows."
The euro's weakness helped the dollar index .DXY rise to a new 11-year high of 96.114.
Expectations that the Fed would raise rates as early as summer have fueled the dollar's recent rally.
The global markets will look to Friday's U.S. jobs data for further confirmation that the world's largest economy is recovering enough to justify a rate hike.
Economists polled by Reuters projected U.S. payrolls grew 240,000 in February, following growth of 257,000 in January. ECONUS
The dollar rose 0.2 percent to 119.855 yen JPY=, still some distance from a three-week peak of 120.27 struck earlier in the week thanks to a spike in U.S. Treasury yields.
The 10-year Treasury note yield US10YT=RR was at 2.117 percent after edging up to a two-week high of 2.142 percent overnight.
Still, optimism stemming from widespread monetary easing supported the region's other stock markets.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 edged up 0.2 percent and South Korea's Kospi .KS11 was up 0.2 percent.
Risk asset markets, shored up by liquidity provided by easing-minded central banks around the world, will have a chance to confirm the ECB's easing stance when it holds a policy meeting later in the session.
The ECB, which starts its quantitative easing (QE), or bond-buying, program of more than 1 trillion euros this month, is expected to detail the plan after the meeting.
"It is the reminder of this divergence that has driven EUR/USD to fresh 11-year lows."
The euro's weakness helped the dollar index .DXY rise to a new 11-year high of 96.114.
Expectations that the Fed would raise rates as early as summer have fueled the dollar's recent rally.
The global markets will look to Friday's U.S. jobs data for further confirmation that the world's largest economy is recovering enough to justify a rate hike.
Economists polled by Reuters projected U.S. payrolls grew 240,000 in February, following growth of 257,000 in January. ECONUS
The dollar rose 0.2 percent to 119.855 yen JPY=, still some distance from a three-week peak of 120.27 struck earlier in the week thanks to a spike in U.S. Treasury yields.
The 10-year Treasury note yield US10YT=RR was at 2.117 percent after edging up to a two-week high of 2.142 percent overnight.
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