European stocks decline

On Friday European stocks declined, skimming gains from the first week of the year, as investors awaited a report on U.S. payrolls for clues on the outlook for the world’s biggest economy.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.3 percent at 8:23 a.m. in London. Commodity producers led declines, after climbing in three of the previous four sessions.

The European benchmark on the 3 January entered a bull market, months after global peers. Despite gains of 0.9 percent this week, its members are trading more cheaply than those on the S&P 500 index, on an estimated earnings basis.

Traders are closely watching U.S. employment data, after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed officials more concerned about a stronger currency. The dollar fell against the euro for the previous two days before steadying on Friday.

In the UK, Mark Carney’s Brexit team is waiting for a key player just weeks away from the start of the season. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond must soon make his first major Bank of England appointment with Minouche Shafik departing as deputy governor for markets and banking in less than two months. Her replacement will look after Britain’s financial industry through the divorce from the European Union and take charge of a wide-ranging mandate, including voting on interest rates and representing the bank in global forums. Carney has been building up his team working on Brexit issues as the government plans to trigger formal negotiations on leaving the bloc by the end of March.

Asian equities pared gains for the week as a drop in Japanese shares outweighed advances in the broader region before key U.S. jobs data. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.3 percent as of 3:27 p.m. in Hong Kong, with eight out of 11 industry groups falling, led by a gauge of consumer discretionary stocks, as automakers fell.