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In today's Market Report... Asian shares were down on Friday after a sharp overnight sell-off in commodities, with investors seeking to reduce risk ahead of U.S. payrolls data later in the day.
Opening after a three-day break, Japanese shares were down as much as 2 percent. Shares in Hong Kong and China also continued to lose ground as resources extended their slide following a plunge in commodities prices.
The decline of resource stocks slowed later in the trading day, but a global benchmark for commodities prices was still heading for an 8 percent drop for the week. That's the biggest weekly fall in nearly three years. And some analysts are saying their prices could fall even more.
Silver is heading for a weekly loss of nearly 30 percent.
Up until last week, the commodity market was the best performing asset class this year, posting gains of more than 10 percent.
Resources' decline led to a brief wave of stop-loss selling in stocks and commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar, which pushed currency favorites like the yen and U.S. dollar higher.
Oil saw a record $12 drop in the previous session, leading to a big jump in airline stocks today. Australia's Qantas and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific added more than three percent. Singapore Airlines was more than two percent higher at midday.