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By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Big tech shares edged higher on Friday, helping a benchmark world stock index post a sixth consecutive closing high, after a weak U.S. jobs report likely pushed back the timetable for when the Federal Reserve reduces its massive support of the economy.
Labor Department data that showed wages increasing more than expected in August raised inflation fears and led longer-dated Treasury yields to jump, while gold advanced to a more than a 2-1/2-month high as the dollar eased.
MSCI's all-country world index, which is heavily weighted to big U.S. tech, notched a new record as Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc advanced. The tech gains also helped the Nasdaq set a fresh closing high.
The Dow Industrials and S&P 500 fell as slower U.S. jobs growth raised questions about the pace of the recovery. But a Fed taper announcement is off the table in September, said Lee Ferridge, North American head of multi-asset strategy at State Street Global Markets.
"Support from the Fed for these markets is going to persist. Taper starts later rather than sooner. That's positive for equities, that's positive for risk," he said.
"As long as the Fed is printing, then that means that the equity markets are supported by the whole QE liquidity argument," Ferridge said.
U.S. employers created the fewest jobs in seven months in August as the Delta variant hurt the leisure and hospitality sector, but a 0.6% increase in wages showed underlying strength in the economy, the jobs report showed.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 235,000 in August, well short of the 728,000 forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. But the unemployment rate fell to 5.2% from 5.4% in July.
MSCI's ACWI, which is 60% U.S. equities, rose 0.11% to 746.46, while the Nasdaq gained 0.21%.
The S&P 500 index edged 0.03% lower and the Dow Jones Industrials fell 0.2%. The broad STOXX Europe 600 index of pan-regional stocks closed down 0.56%.
Euro zone business activity, meanwhile, remained strong last month, IHS Markit's survey showed, suggesting the bloc's economy could be back to pre-COVID-19 levels by year-end despite fears about the Delta variant.
The European Central Bank meets next week amid callsfrom several hawkish members to slow its pandemic-era asset purchase program. A Reuters poll sees the bank announcing acut to its asset purchases, given a recent spike in inflation.
Yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 3 basis points to 1.324% as the U.S. labor report showed a jump in hourly earnings, a potential sign of future inflation.