Asian shares were hovering near 1-month lows as jobless US claims data earlier raised doubts over the NFP figure. Wall Street shares were mixed on Thursday, with the S&P 500 index slight 0.02 % drop nevertheless sending it to a 3-week low.
It is the first Friday of the month today and this means that Non-Farm Payrolls is to be released at 12:30 GMT. Economists expect payrolls to show 206k growth in jobs in April. Unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 5.00% while average hourly earnings are expected to show 0.3% m/m growth. Overall the pre-NFP data suggest that NFP would be solid but possibly unspectacular. Wage growth would likely be the one that moves market.
Stocks: Asian shares were hovering near 1-month lows as jobless US claims data earlier raised doubts over the NFP figure. Wall Street shares were mixed on Thursday, with the S&P 500 index (SPY) slight 0.02 % drop nevertheless sending it to a 3-week low.
Currencies: AUD collapsed from 0.7461 to 0.7380 in Asian session after the RBA slashed the inflation forecast all the way through June 2018. The EUR held steady at $1.1405, having fallen 0.7 % on Thursday. It’s heading for a weekly drop of 0.4%. The JPY, which jumped after the Bank of Japan stood pat on policy last week, traded around 107.00, off its 1-1/2-year high of 105.55 set earlier this week. It’s set for a 0.6% decline for the week. Other big market movers were Turkish Lira (TRY) which dropped following news that its Prime minister resigned.
Oil and Gold: Crude oil enjoyed a nice rally of 3% yesterday as prices jumped following news that a wild fire in Canada could disrupt production of the country’s oil production. Gold traded within a large range of 1286 and 1269 yesterday but settled around 1277. Large moves will be expected in the yellow metal this afternoon, following the release of NFP.
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