More weak data from Europe ensured shares worldwide were set to end their first full week of 2015 in the red on Friday, while both the dollar and oil prices dipped as investors waited for monthly US jobs data.
Friday's jobs report is expected to show that non-farm payrolls increased by 240,000 in December. That would mark the 11th consecutive month of job gains above 200,000, the longest stretch since 1994.
A deluge of US data this week has already bolstered expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates for the first time in almost a decade around the middle of the year and has sent the dollar .DXY soaring to a nine-year high.
"At the moment the US is the only party on the street," said Kully Samra at Charles Schwab in London. "Where else are you going to go for growth."
Europe though continues to paint a much bleaker picture. German exports fell sharply and industrial output declined in November new figures showed. Industrial production also fell in France and Spain's reading was revised down.
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