Good morning,
USD: Job data rebound
After February’s surprisingly low new jobs figure we expect things to pick back up with today’s reading showing around 190,000 jobs being added to the labour market and average hourly earnings up 0.25%.
Any further positive data will help life investor mood across the markets with the US economy still labelled a recession concern as it approached its 10 year anniversary from the 2009 financial crisis. Of course, President Trump is still convinced that the economy is outperforming despite the “destructive” actions of the Reserve Bank.
US and China Trade chatter remains upbeat and the majority of Asian equity markets opening in the green this morning. Comments from Washington suggest that many of the “difficult” points have been finalised and a forecasted completion is set for four weeks’ time. President Xi has not been present during recent negotiations, with Vice President Liu He taking control. A final date for both presidents to meet has still not been set.
GBP: Awaiting tangible progress
Pound pairs remain net lower from yesterday morning, with little progress being paved down and one week left until the deadline. Any breakthroughs made during May and Corbyn’s cross-party talks will be snapped up quickly by investors, but they remain disappointing so far – following four hours of negotiations and “collaboration”, the cross-party talks were yielded as “productive” and “technical”.
There are rumours that during the EUs summit next week, there could be a new long term and flexible extension offered to the UK. This would include a clause to leave earlier if the UK passes the withdrawal agreement, however it may also drag the UK into European elections as a pre-condition. There will need to be EU sign off for this to happen, so we will keep an eye on developments heading into the summit next week.
Have a great day and a good weekend.