The City calendar is virtually bare, giving more space for speculation and conjecture post the central bank action earlier in the week and scrutiny of the new monthly macro data emerging.
Fresh after the Fed announcement comes the big US jobs market report, with the non-farm payrolls number that always has “all eyes” on it.
In December we saw 223k new jobs added, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% from 3.6% and average hourly earnings growth came in below expectations at 4.6% and the previous month’s numbers were revised down to 4.8%.
“There continues to be a sense that the market is becoming complacent about how quickly we might see the Federal Reserve pivot when it comes to interest rates, however while the unemployment rate remains at multi year lows the US central bank has little incentive to cut rates when inflation still remains almost 3 times higher than its 2% target,” said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.
January is expected to have seen 175k new jobs added, with the unemployment rate set to edge back up to 3.6%.
Significant announcements
AGMs: Catalyst Media Group PLC, Cerillion PLC (AIM:CER), Focusrite PLC (AIM:TUNE)
Economic announcements: PMI Composite (UK), PMI Services (UK), Non-Farm Payrolls (US), Unemployment Rate (US), PMI Composite (US), PMI Services (US), ISM Services (US)