On Friday European stocks fell, paring the biggest weekly rally on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index since July 2010, before a report that may show the U.S. jobless rate remained above 9 percent. U.S. futures and Asian shares slipped.

“The big number of the day will be U.S. non-farm payrolls for August ahead of the long Labor Day weekend in the U.S. on Monday,” said Michael Hewson, a markets analyst at CMC Markets in London. “There now remains a concern in some quarters that today’s number could well be negative, which would be a shock and certainly give the Fed and the markets food for thought.”

The benchmark Stoxx 600 has rallied 4.2 percent this week, its biggest weekly jump since July 2010, as investors speculated the rout which had left the gauge trading at as little as 9.1 times its estimated earnings wasn’t commensurate with the prospect for profit growth. The measure declined 10 percent in August, its largest monthly retreat since October 2008, amid concern global economic growth is slowing as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis spread.

The European Central Bank should reverse this year’s rate increases to prevent the euro-area economy from slipping back into recession, members of the so-called shadow ECB council said.

A contraction in European manufacturing and plunging business and consumer confidence suggest the sharp slowdown in economic growth in the second quarter may continue in the third, they said. The ECB shadow council is a group of 15 economists and portfolio managers who watch economic developments and monetary policy in the euro area and issue recommendations each month.

Japanese stocks fell, snapping a six-day rally, ahead of the U.S. job report. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.2 percent while the Topix index declined 1.1 percent.