Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $68.96 while gold traded up 0.4% at $2,537.10.

Silver traded up 1.7% to $29.045 on Thursday, while copper rose 1.3% to $4.1330.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 0.54%, Germany's DAX fell 0.08% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.92%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 0.53%, while London's FTSE 100 fell 0.34%.

Retail sales in the Eurozone rose by 0.1% from the previous month in July compared to a revised 0.4% decline in the earlier month. The HCOB Eurozone construction PMI came in unchanged at 41.4 in August. The S&P Global UK construction PMI declined to 53.6 in August compared to 55.3 in July.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 1.05%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index falling 0.08%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.14% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.18%.

Average cash earnings in Japan rose by 3.6% year-over-year in July versus a 4.5% increase in the prior month.

Economics

• U.S. private businesses added 99,000 workers to their payrolls in August compared to a revised 111,000 gain in July and versus market estimates of 145,000.
• U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 from the prior week to 227,000 in the week ending August 31, compared to market estimates of 230,000.
• U.S. non-farm business sector labor productivity rose by 2.5% in the second quarter versus the preliminary estimate of 2.3% and compared to the 0.4% gain recorded in the first quarter.
• Unit labor costs in the nonfarm business sector rose by an annualized rate of 0.4% during the second quarter.
• U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 6.9 million barrels during the final week of August, compared to market estimates of a 1.1 million barrel decline.

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