Investors await U.S. Non-farm payrolls (NFP) data due tomorrow. NFP expected to be lower in August than the prior month, a stronger-than-expected reading could give the Federal Reserve more space to hike interest rates aggressively this year.

- Data showed that U.S. private payrolls grew substantially less than expected in August, indicating that the labor market may be cooling.

- Still, hawkish comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week saw gold and most other metals lose substantially in the past three sessions. Investors are penciling in an over 70% chance that the Fed will hike interest rates by 75 basis points later in September.

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Equities:

- In Wall Street, US stocks ended the month with their fourth straight daily decline yesterday, cementing the weakest August performance in seven years as worries about aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve persist.

- Adding to pressure were declines in the technology sector, and more specifically chipmakers, after soft forecasts from Seagate and HP Inc. The three main indexes suffered their biggest monthly percentage declines in August since 2015 after hitting a four-month high in mid-August.

- The Nasdaq Composite dropped 49.3 points, or 0.40%, to 12,296.6. The S&P 500 lost 31.16 points or 0.78%, to 3,954.99, and The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 259 points or 0.81%, to 31,556.

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Currency Market:

- The Dollar Index rose around 2.6% in August, its third-straight monthly gain. Hot inflation is triggering additional recession-related fears harassing financial markets, which is serving as a bullish push for the US dollar and US Treasury yields.

- The U.S. dollar index was up 0.18% at 108.93, not far off its two-decade high of 109.48 hit on Monday.

- The euro fell 0.3% to just hold above parity at $1.00235. Sterling was 0.16% lower at $1.16015. The greenback hit a high of 139.69 yen, its highest since 1998, after gaining about 0.5% on the previous day's close. It was last up 0.17% at 139.2 yen.

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Commodities: Gold

- Gold prices fell further on Thursday as the U.S. dollar gained ahead of key payrolls data due tomorrow.

- Spot gold fell 0.3% to $1,702.27 an ounce touching its weakest level since late-July. Gold futures sank 0.5% to $1,716.75 an ounce.

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Commodities: Oil

- Oil prices as investors were worried that aggressive interest rate hikes from global policymakers would slow economies and dent fuel demand, while renewed restrictions to curb COVID-19 in China also added pressure.

- Brent crude futures fell 0.8% to $94.84 a barrel. WTI crude futures slid 1% to $88.70 a barrel.
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