RUBBER-Tokyo futures ease ahead of U.S. jobs data

Key TOCOM rubber futures slipped 0.6 percent, snapping two days of gains, on caution over the strength of the global economy ahead of U.S. nonfarm payroll figures later on Friday.

FUNDAMENTALS

* The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for April delivery< 0#2JRU:> fell 1.5 yen at 257.5 yen as of 0038 GMT, after two days of gains.

The benchmark contract, which is coming under pressure from worries about debt-laden Greece and the euro-zone economies, is set to end the week with a near 1 percent decline.

* The U.S. Labor Department will release the October jobs report later in the day. A Reuters poll puts the increase in U.S. jobs at 125,000 in October, up from 114,000 in September and the jobless rate to tick up to 7.9 percent from a near four-year low of 7.8 percent.

Separately, payrolls processor Automatic Data Processing data showed on Thursday that U.S. companies added jobs in October at the fastest pace in eight months, a sign of modest healing in the labor market just days before a presidential election that could hinge on the economy.