Stocks, bonds gain ahead of US data, Fed comments; yen rallies

Investors' immediate focus is Friday's pivotal U.S. payrolls report after disappointing private labour data for August. Fed Board Governor Christopher Waller is due to speak, after New York Fed President John Williams said on Wednesday rising long-term bond yields were a reflection of a solid economy, adding that he was still collecting information to drive his next monetary policy decision.

"There is an interpretation about why yields are moving higher — is it good, or bad? I feel that the negative reasons are more often put forward than the positive reasons. Negative reasons being: too much supply of debt, fiscal risk, geopolitics and, normalisation of risk premium because of oil. But it might be that a key reason behind higher yields is simply higher nominal growth," Lombard Odier chief economist Samy Chaar said.

"If demand is strong and it's demand that is keeping yields at high levels, it's quite a good environment for multi-asset portfolios, in the sense that you want to be exposed to profit growth with equities, and you want to be exposed to carry as well, with credit," he said.