(Updates ahead of Wall Street open)

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European and Asian stocks mostly rise despite China

selloff

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Bond market calm after rising fiscal health concerns

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US jobless claims, Fed's dovish comments reinforce rate

cut hope

By Marc Jones

LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - World stocks were mostly

higher on Thursday as dovish comments from Federal Reserve

officials and a smooth auction of 30-year debt in Japan eased

some recent government bond market jitters.

Chinese bourses had tumbled overnight on reports that

Beijing wanted to cool a red-hot stocks rally, especially the

tech sector , but Europe was having a much

easier day and Wall Street was pointing higher.

The FTSEurofirst 300 ticked up 0.4% and S&P 500 and

Nasdaq futures inched up 0.1% as angst about rising long-term

government borrowing costs in the likes of France, Britain and

the U.S. eased.

Oil prices extended their weak week after a

Reuters report that OPEC+ officials are looking at increasing

output targets this weekend, while the dollar was drifting ahead

of Friday's crucial jobs report.

An appetiser came in the shape of higher jobless claim

numbers, although traders seemed happy to keep their powder dry.

Several key Federal Reserve officials have bolstered

expectations of an imminent U.S. rate cut in recent days. Money

markets are now pricing in a near-100% chance that one will be

delivered at the Fed's meeting in just under two weeks.

"The markets have become a little bit more convinced about a

Fed rate cut this month, so that has put some modest downward

pressure on bond yields," said MUFG's global markets division

head of research, Derek Halpenny.

He said the Chinese equity market dip had weighed a little

on the Aussie and Kiwi dollars in the FX markets, but otherwise

it was largely a case of "consolidate and wait" for Friday's

payrolls numbers.

European bond buyers nudged the German 30-year bond yield

down to 3.3%. France's was down a touch more at

4.40%, having hit 4.523% on Tuesday, its highest since June

2009, on worries that its government could collapse again.

SALESFORCE SHARES SLUMP

One outlier to the pre-payrolls lull was a near 7%

pre-market slump in Salesforce ( CRM ) shares after

third-quarter revenues disappointed Wall Street's analysts due

to lagging monetization of AI-powered products.

While AI euphoria has driven the main U.S. indexes to

repeated record highs this year, momentum has ebbed since

numbers from Nvidia ( NVDA ) and others failed to wow investors.

Overnight, the main action had been in China following a

report that regulators were preparing cooling measures for

equity markets.

Beijing bluechips fell as much as 2.6%, while the

tech-heavy STAR 50 index, which soared nearly 30% last month,

dropped more than 6% in its worst day since April.

Wall Street futures were pointing to an easy restart.

Payrolls are not until Friday, but traders will get to hear

the nomination hearing of Stephen Miran, U.S. President Donald

Trump's pick to replace resigning Fed board member Adriana

Kugler.

"It'll be interesting to hear senators' questioning of

Miran's views on Fed independence," said Deutsche Bank's Global

Head of Macro Research, Jim Reid, given that Trump has attempted

to fire Fed official Lisa Cook and has repeatedly criticised Fed

Chair Jerome Powell.

In testimony posted to the Senate Banking Committee's

website on Wednesday, Miran said he intended to "preserve" that

independence.

Concerns over Fed independence have done nothing to relieve

pressure on major governments' debt prices, so there was relief

that an auction of 30-year Japanese bonds had gone smoothly in

Tokyo overnight.

Australian shares advanced 1%, recovering from their

biggest one-day sell-off since April, while Tokyo's Nikkei 225

ended 1.5% higher.

India's benchmark Sensex rose as much as 1% as

markets reopened after the government slashed levies on several

goods to fire up consumption and counteract U.S. tariffs.

Wednesday's Federal Reserve "Beige Book" had painted a mixed

picture of the U.S. economy, which appeared to underscore

monetary policymakers' concerns. Analysts at ING called it

"bleak" and said it was "littered with" warnings about the

inflationary effect of import tariffs on prices.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes

inched down to 4.18% in early U.S. trading with the more

rate-sensitive 2-year yield at 3.6%, its lowest level

since the start of May.

The dollar edged up 0.2% against the yen to 148.45,

keeping within the trading range where it has stayed since the

beginning of August.

It was also fractionally higher against the euro at

$1.1650. In commodities markets, Brent crude dipped

another 1.4% to under $67 a barrel and gold edged back

0.5% after hitting a record high of 3,578.5 an ounce on

Wednesday.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)