(FT) -- Gold marched to a fresh peak but Asian and European stocks paused for breath on Thursday after Wall Street finished in positive territory overnight, but well off the 13-month highs achieved earlier in the session.

The dollar, whose sudden uptick from 15-month lows on Wednesday appeared to drive Wall Street's pullback, added to those gains in early European trading. The greenback's reversal challenged traders' fashionable mantra of "weak dollar good" for riskier assets such as equities and commodities.

Against the euro the dollar was up 0.2 per cent at $1.4945. News that eurozone industrial production had risen 0.3 per cent in September, slightly less than expected, had negligible impact. On a trade-weighted basis the greenback rose 0.15 per cent to 75.22.

The main mover in the foreign exchange markets was the Aussie dollar, which hit a 15-month high against its US namesake of $0.9369 on strong jobs figures. It later traded up 0.27 per cent at $0.9316.

Early Asian action had seen renewed weakness in the greenback and this was sufficient to propel gold to a new all-time high of $1,122.85 an ounce. But the dollar's new-found vigour saw the precious metal later drop 0.2 per cent to $1,114.8.

The main European exchanges gave up modest gains on the dollar's advance, though still sat within sight of 2009 highs. The FTSE 100 was flat at 5,266.1, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 lost 0.2 per cent at 1,011.3.

Asian stock markets had provided little impetus. Bourses in the region put in a varied showing with not much thrust offered in turn by Wall Street after the S&P 500 retreated from a new high for 2009 of 1,105.3 to settle up 0.5 per cent at 1,098.5.

Wall Street's measure of investor anxiety, the Vix index, rose 0.9 per cent to 23.04.

US equity futures balked at the dollar's improvement, and the S&P 500 was slated to open 6 points lower.

The Nikkei closed down 0.7 per cent at 9,804.5 despite car manufacturers gaining following a positive broker's note. The yen, still stuck below Y90 to the dollar, provided a drag.

Mainland China's benchmark, the Shanghai Composite lost 0.1 per cent per cent at 3,172.95, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.1 per cent at 22,397.6 as HSBC bank saw profit taking.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave ground, down 0.2 per cent to 4,747.9 after the labour data raised fears of more interest rate increases.

The US government bond market reopened in electronic trading after the Veterans' day closure on Wednesday. The benchmark US 10-year Treasury yield fell 0.5 basis points to 3.425 per cent. Gilt and Bund yields were little changed at 3.737 per cent and 3.319 per cent, respectively.

The US 30-year bond, which must face a potentially difficult $16bn auction of new notes later, saw its yield fall 0.5 basis points to 4.362 per cent.

Japan's 10-year bond yield dipped 0.6 basis points to 1.380 per cent.

Oil fell as the dollar rallied, down 0.5 per cent at at $78.89 a barrel. Inventories data, postponed because of Veterans' day, will be released later on Thursday.

DATA WATCH. US initial jobless claims numbers are forecast to show a fall last week from 512,000 to 510,000.

Meanwhile, a useful sign of consumer sentiment will be provided by Walmart's earnings report.

© The Financial Times Limited 2009