London : Equities came off the boil globally yesterday, after rising every day so far this year, as investors stepped back to await key US 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.

Investors have entered 2010 in bullish form, taking stocks to new 15-month highs in the US, Japan and Europe. But the mood is contingent on firm evidence that global economy is recovering, particularly in the US.

US jobs data due today 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 US 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 was down 0.4 per cent after gaining as much as 2.5 per cent this week.

"It's a fine line between weak [US 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," Valerie Plagnol, chief strategist at CM-CIC Securities, in Paris, said.

"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 per cent. Japan's Nikkei average closed down 0.46 per cent.

Earlier, China's key stock index fell 1.9 per cent 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' fin-ances.

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.

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.

"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, the dollar gained a half a percent. The euro was down 0.6 percent at $1.4325.

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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