LONDON — The growing expectation that US interest rates will rise before the end of the year lifted the dollar and bank shares on Thursday but took the shine off gold, one of the year’s best-performing assets.Investors were already looking to US jobs data on Friday as the dollar hit a four-week high against the yen in early European trading. Sterling remained near a three-decade low.European shares had a choppy start. Beaten-down banking stocks provided the biggest boost, while reports of a takeover sent German light-bulb maker Osram to a record high.Although German industrial orders data came in surprisingly strong, the region’s big markets — Britain’s FTSE, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC — still dipped in and out of the red."By and large the dollar is continuing to trade well," said Société Générale strategist Alvin Tan. "Expectations about the Fed raising rates are edging up and that has been helped by the good run of US data.... The big one, though, is tomorrow with the nonfarm ...
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