Trading is rather directionless this morning in the lead up to the jobs data. USD moved lower (USDIndex 101.70). Stocks extended gains overnight (NASDAQ +2.69%) and Treasuries bounced from red to green and back again. Asian markets managed pretty broad gains, with tech stocks still outperforming after they led yesterday’s rally on Wall Street (Nikkei +1.2%, ASX +0.9%) with China & HK closed today. European FUTS are lower (Italy, Spain & France closed & UK closed until Monday). Treasury announced a $96 bln package of coupon auctions for next week. Yesterday’s data showed strength in jobless claims and weakness in ADP private payrolls and factory orders.
- USDIndex pulled back to 101.70, reverting all the gains from Wednesday.
- Equities – USA500 (+1.84%) at 4189, while the USA30 was 1.33% firmer. The GER40 future is up 0.8% while US futures are looking more cautious as key US payroll numbers come into view.
- Yields 10-year rate was up 0.5 bps to 2.91%, with the 2-year 0.2 bps lower at 2.64%.
- Oil – USOil spiked to $116.27 before correcting to $114.60 now, following the bullish EIA inventory report that overshadowed the boost in production announced by OPEC+ in July and August, only to tumble on reports OPEC+ was considering excluding Russia from production quotas which suggested increased output from Saudi and the UAE to make up for the loss.
- Gold rallied to $1874.
- Bitcoin back above $30k.
- FX markets – USDIndex is slightly lower, EURUSD managed to move up to 1.0755, USDJPY is still holding close to 130.00, Cable is at 1.2574.
NOTE: NFP is unlikely to make any difference in terms of the Fed – but the labor market into Q3 will be an important determinant for the FOMC. Meanwhile, the markets continue to vacillate on risk-on, risk-off flows, and waver on inflation/growth uncertainties, as well as the outlook for the responses from key central banks, while volatility in energy and the ongoing distortions from supply chains also continue to impact.
Today – EU Retail Sales, US NFP, ISM Services PMI and Speech from Biden.
Biggest FX Mover @ (06:30 GMT) Cocoa (-1.55%) dipped to 50-period SMA at 2470 from 2537. MAs aligning lower, MACD lines decline but hold above 0, RSI 46 but pointing higher, H1 ATR 19.07, Daily ATR 51.92.
