The price of oil is continuing to revive from its local minimums which were reached on Tuesday. On Thursday, after a fall for Brent to $42.5, the price quickly bounced back and reached $44.3 which is a maximum since 27th July. This evening will see Baker Hughes’ oil drilling rig report for the US published.

After yesterday’s solid growth on the majority of stock markets, this morning sees the Asian markets off in different directions. The Nikkei 225 has fallen by 0.1%. The ASX Australia is up 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite has decreased 0.1%, and the Hang Seng is up by 1.4%. Futures for the S&P 500 were trading at 2162; 0.1% above the closing level of the previous trading day.

China must update old and ineffective production capacity, optimise its industry structure and lessen pollution to increase its competitiveness in petrochemical industries. This is according to a directive from the Chinese state council. Excesses in manufacturing capacity are hindering the development of the petrochemical industry, in addition to problems for the environment, the directive notes. The documents outlines that foreign companies will be allowed to take part in mergers within the Chinese petrochemical industry and 7 petrochemical manufacturing bases will be created as one of a set of important steps to optimise the industry’s structure in the country’s coastal regions. It is planned that by 2020, China’s energy expenses per unit of production costing 10,000 yuan will be reduced by 8% from that of 2015 and the level of carbon pollution and spending on water will drop by 10% and 14% correspondingly.

The USD was trading up against the yuan this morning at 6.6454 (+0.0036 or +0.05%).

The EUR/USD on Thursday finished down in a 1.1115-1.1155 range. The pair was doing the opposite, though, on Friday morning: strengthening slightly from 1.1125 to 1.1140. We can expect low activity on the currency market throughout the day today until the US releases its data on in employment (forecasted 4.8% fall) and NFP (forecasted to be at 180k).