Uneven stocks...Weekly mortgage and unemployment benefit data due...Blunting banks

HONG KONG (AP) — International stock markets were uneven today as investors hesitated to take risky bets as they awaited a key U.S. jobs report following a batch of mixed economic data. Asian stocks were mixed while European markets opened modestly higher. Futures pointed to a higher opening on Wall Street. Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose more than $1.25, or 3.2 percent, to get above $45 a barrel. The dollar gained against the yen and the euro.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Labor Department will report today on how many people applied for unemployment benefits last week. And Freddie Mac will release the weekly mortgage rates. Fannie Mae and Merck & Co. will also report quarterly financial results before the market opens.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is about to propose removing bank-imposed shackles on customers who feel they have been wronged. The nation's top consumer financial regulator is announcing a proposal today to ban mandatory arbitration clauses, which would affect the entire financial industry and hundreds of millions of bank accounts, credit cards and mortgages. Currently customers are generally required to take any disputes with a bank to a third-party mediator.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The additional air bag inflator recall by Takata is now raising questions about the auto industry's ability to produce and distribute the necessary replacement parts. Instead of a 2017 target, the government now says it will take until the end of 2019 to finish the recalls. But two years after the recalls began, automakers have only replaced 28 percent of the inflators due to a lack of replacement parts and difficulty in finding owners and persuading them to get cars repaired.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The clock is ticking in California for opponents of the state's new legal tobacco-buying age of 21. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill yesterday. It had faced stiff opposition from tobacco interests which threatened to target the changes at the ballot box. They now have until August to gather the required 366,000 voter signatures to force a ballot measure for voters to decide.

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