Global shares down as US economy takes center stage

Global stock markets mostly fell Wednesday following the latest retreat on Wall Street and as investors awaited a run of U.S. economic data culminating at the end of the week with the latest nonfarm payrolls report.

KEEPING SCORE: In Europe, Germany's DAX was down 0.9 percent at 12,935 while France's CAC 40 was 0.5 percent lower at 5,351. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 0.1 percent higher at 7,337. U.S. stocks were poised for further modest losses at the open with Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures down 0.2 percent.

US DATA: The U.S. economy is set to take center stage in the thoughts of traders over the rest of the week. On Wednesday, they will have the monthly ADP private payrolls to digest, ahead of Friday's official data. Though the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates again next week, there's still uncertainty about its intentions for 2018. Strong U.S. jobs data will make further increases more likely.

ANALYST TAKE: "Today's session is set to be the real start to the week as the calendar gets particularly busy with the real headline acts of the week," said James Hughes, chief market analyst at AxiTrader. "With next week's Fed rate decision there is always an added edge to the jobs report despite the fact that a weaker number would not deter the Fed from raising on Dec 13."

ASIA'S DAY: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 2.0 percent to 22,177.04 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slumped 2.1 percent to 28,224.80. The Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.3 percent to 3,293.96 while South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.4 percent to 2,474.37. The S&P ASX 200 in Australia fell 0.4 percent to 5,945.70.

CURRENCIES: The euro was down 0.1 percent at $1.1809 while the dollar fell 0.4 percent at 112.17 yen.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gave up 78 cents to trade at $56.84 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 79 cents to $62.07 a barrel in London.