Yen volatile ahead of US jobs data Friday 11.35 BST. A very twitchy week is ending with more pockets of volatility across currencies and stocks ahead of key US non-farm payrolls data due out later in the global day. The dollar remains under pressure, pushing the yen to a two-month high and forcing Japanese stocks briefly into bear market territory. Gold is down $1 to $1,412 an ounce and Treasury prices are rising, nudging 10-year yields down 3 basis points to 2.05 per cent, as supposed havens are sought. The Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan lost 0.9 per cent, but the mood is a bit calmer in Europe, with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 slipping 0.2 per cent - reflecting Wall Street's bounce off Thursday's session lows. The euro is a bit firmer, holding $1.3250, after better than expected German industrial output data. US index futures suggest the S&P 500 will lose 4 points to 1,620. Sharp vacillations in recent sessions are being blamed on traders adjusting strategies to reflect shifting perceptions about the effectiveness and duration of central bank policy. In particular, investors have been scrambling to position themselves before the monthly US non-farm payrolls number - due 13.30 BST on Friday - a report seen by many as a crucial guide in assessing when the Federal Reserve might decide to start scaling down its $85bn a month of asset purchases. Analysts are forecasting a net 170,000 jobs were created in May, and that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.5 per cent The FX and equity market is suffering from a major pressure drop. As nervousness over the US jobs data prompts uncertainty, [the] market is getting ugly," said analysts at Citi. The dollar index is down 0.2 per cent and hovering just above three-month lows, having lost 3.4 per cent in just eight sessions. Fretting about the long-term effectiveness of the Japanese authorities" attempts to stimulate the world's third-biggest economy is also causing tremors. Together, these two monetary factors are dishing out some savage moves in the dollar/yen cross; machinations that are seen causing a damaging cascade through established "short yen/long stocks" strategies. On Thursday, the Japanese currency saw its biggest one-day gain against the dollar since the March 11 earthquake in Japan, rising from Y99.37 to Y95.91. It's been wobbly in the current session, seeing a range of Y97.49 to Y95.57, and the yen is currently 1.2 per cent firmer at Y95.78. Consequently, the Nikkei 225 endured another highly choppy session, finishing down 0.2 per cent having registered a loss of 2.8 per cent and a gain of 1.6 per cent. At its low the Nikkei had shed more than 20 per cent from its May 23 cyclical peak, a fall that is considered by some to mean the index had entered a bear market. Nikkei futures briefly moved higher in after-hours trading - when Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund confirmed it would trim its bond holdings and increase its portfolio of domestic stocks - but they swiftly reversed course to suggest Tokyo would struggle again on Monday. Japanese government bonds initially gained ground, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year bond falling to 0.816 per cent, from Thursday's close of 0.833 per cent. The news from GPIF has forced yields back up to 0.86 per cent, however. Elsewhere in the region, equity markets were generally lower, with Australia's ASX 200 down 0.9 per cent, and South Korea's Kospi off 1.8 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.2 per cent and the Shanghai Composite shed 1.4 per cent. Additional reporting by Josh Noble in Hong Kong and Ben McLannahan in Tokyo