Non farm payrolls arrived on Friday with the best monthly reading since the recession began two years ago, strengthening the dollar index by over a percent as investors optimism grew about the American economy.

Despite analysts looking for a result showing that 125,000 jobs would be lost over the previous month, a figure revealing only 11,000 jobs were shed eventuated.  The dollar strengthened as the focus turned to the long term potential for the American economy to rebound, and the chances of the Fed relaxing its ultra loose monetary policy by raising interest rates sooner rather than later.

Equity markets surged on the news, most European and American indices added a further 1% as risk was firmly on the table again. A pessimistic report released earlier in the day by JP Morgan on the UK banking sector unsurprisingly saw banking stocks weak, leaving the pound also under pressure.

Today is light on the data front, German Factory orders are due out in the morning session which may move the euro around a little.

We are proud to announce that World First was named as number 53 on the Times 100 Fast track award for the UK’s fastest growing companies for 2009.