Ahead of a busy day, the European markets got off to a positive start, with the FTSE up 6 points in early trading while the DAX and CAC were up 50 and 35 points respectively.
The UK jobs report is the first thing on the agenda this morning. Spreadex Analyst, Connor Campbell commented “Considering that the consumer price index is now at an eye-watering 2.9% there is going to be even more focus on the latest wage growth reading this Wednesday.”
“Analysts are expecting the average earnings to remain unchanged at 2.4%, marking a half a percent drop in real wages. That is going to continue to put pressure on household spending, which last month fell for the first time in almost 4 years”
“Beyond the wage data, the unemployment rate is forecast to hold at 4.6% – though its beaten estimates in 2 of the last 3 months – while the claimant count change number is set to drop from 19.4k to 12.5 month-on-month.”
Over in the US, equity markets traded fresh all-time highs yesterday as the recent Tech sell-off came to an abrupt end, with all three major bourses closing higher. Accendo Markets Analyst, Mike van Dulken noted “Both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed at fresh record highs, helped by Financial and Materials names ahead of this evening’s FOMC meeting.”
“The tech-focused Nasdaq outperformed, up 0.7%, recovering from its worst two-day performance of 2017.”
On this evening’s FOMC interest rate announcement, Mike van Dulken added “A rate hike is priced in, taking the benchmark range to 1%-1.25%.”
“Greater onus, however, will be on outlook and whether we get hints about another two hikes this year, vindicating last December’s 4-hike forecast. Any mention of timing on trimming its QE-bloated balance sheet would also be welcome.”
ADS Securities Analyst, Konstantinos Anthis added “Today we are looking for the US dollar to continue to trade with a negative bias”
