Trader's Highlight

DJI-NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Dow briefly fell below the crucial 10,000 mark on Thursday as stocks suffered their worst losses in more than nine months.

Escalating sovereign debt problems in Europe and an unexpected rise in jobless claims put investors on the defensive just ahead of Friday's crucial payrolls report.

NYMEX-NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures ended 5 percent lower on Thursday, posting the steepest one-day percentage loss since July, due to a stronger dollar and weak U.S. oil demand that raised more worries about the sluggish economic recovery. Heating oil and gasoline futures finished sharply lower with crude.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March crude settled down $3.84, or 4.99 pct, at $73.14 a barrel, trading from $72.42 to $77.17.

CBOT-CHICAGO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade grains and soy complex close on Thursday.

CBOT-SOYBEANS - March up 6 cents at $9.14 per bushel. Support from oversold technical signals that led to late short-covering. Gains limited by firm dollar, prospects for huge South American soy crops and a sell-off in energies and metals.

CBOT-SOYOIL - March up 0.31 cent at 37.21 cents per lb. EPA ruling on Wednesday on renewable fuels standard was supportive for soyoil.

FCPO-KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Palm oil futures edged 0.5 percent higher on Thursday as strong technicals slightly offset concerns of high stocks in Malaysia, the world's second largest producer of the vegetable oil.

Palm oil is the best performing vegetable oil so far this year, falling 5.7 percent compared to a drop of 7.3 percent in U.S. soyoil and a decline of 8.8 percent in the most-active soybean oil contract on China's Dalian commodity exchange.

REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Major Southeast Asian stock markets fell on Thursday as investors worried about U.S. job data and booked quick profits after a brief rally this week, with Singapore banking shares and Thai energy stocks leading the way.

The Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> ended down 0.7 percent, led by a 2.1 percent drop in top lender DBS Group Holdings and 2.8 percent loss in the biggest developer, CapitaLand .

Malaysia <.KLSE> lost 0.2 percent and Indonesia <.JKSE> eased 0.4 percent, retreating from a 1 percent gain on Wednesday, although Indonesia's central bank played down market worries over inflation, signalling it was in no hurry to raise interest rates