Risk assets are to be given a boost this morning following a very strong end to the week for US indices last Friday and a buying frenzy in Asia overnight. Even Glencore, the recently much unloved stock that was looking like it was going to be the commodity sector’s first ever Lenham Brothers, is rallying strongly up over 12% at the time of writing, firmly back above the 100p level at the open in London’s session. The return of investor appetite has been fuelled by last Friday’s poor nonfarm payroll data which pushed the expectations of a December interest rate hike out causing dollar weakness and a spike in US Treasuries.
This week the focus remains on central banks with the Bank of England set to announce its rate decision on Thursday where the focus will be on whether any other hawks join the lone voter Ian McCafferty calling for a hike in rates. Today sees the usual beginning of month services PMI survey data for the Eurozone and UK, as well as Eurozone retail sales and then we get services PMI from across the pond later this afternoon. It will be interesting to see how these PMIs are faring in the current environment as even before the recent turmoil in the financial markets some survey data was starting to soften.
Further reading:
Digesting jobs, looking forward and testing charts – Live Europe Market Open from 8:00 GMT
Why USD will beat EUR and JPY despite the NFP – Goldman Sachs
