Nonfarm payroll awaited
It is unemployment day (Locked and loaded?) Both the US and Canada will release their jobs report for the month of September with the expectatations in the US for about 500K (vs a surprise 235K). Canada is expected to add around 60K (vs 90.2K last month). Chair Powell took some of the anxiety out of the report's importance saying that it does not have to be a blockbuster number for the Fed to start its taper program. Nevertheless, it IS the unemployment report and that tends to get the market excited (it can also be quite volatile up and down as well so be prepared).
Ahead of the report, the major currencies are scrunched together as traders await the next shove (?). The EUR is the strongest and the JPY is the weakest but there is no run away currency leader (higher or lower). The USD is mixed with modest gains vs the JPY and AUD and modest declines vs the EUR, GBP, CAD and NZD. The US stocks are little changed but up a bit (they indices have been up 3 days in a row now). The US yields are modestly higher. The 5 year yield moved to a new cycle high of 1.05% taking out the April high near 1.04% (currently at 1.0319%).
In other markets:
- Spot gold is trading up $5.87 or 0.33% at $1762.30
- Spot silver is down to censor -0.10% at $22.55
- WTI crude oil futures are up $0.41 or 0.52% at $78.71
- The price of bitcoin is up near $1500 and $55,271 as it continues its push to the upside
In the premarket for US stocks, the major indices are up modestly as implied by the futures:
- Dow Jones is up 34 points after yesterday's 337.95 point gain
- S&P index is up three points after yesterday's 36.19 point gain
- NASDAQ index is up 17 points after yesterday's 152.1 point gain
In the European, the major indices are mixed:
- German Dax -0.1%
- France's CAC -0.2%
- UK's FTSE 100 unchanged
- Spain's Ibex +0.1%
- Italy's FTSE MIB +0.25%
In the US debt market, the yields are higher with the kink in the five year maturity. That yield is up 1.3 basis points to 1.0319%. The 30 year yield is up 0.3 basis points.
In the European debt market, the benchmark 10 year yields are higher with the UK yield up 4.4 basis points leading the way.
