US stock markets took a beating again on Thursday ahead of key data releases at the end of the week. The Dow dropped 1.66%, the S&P 1.85% and the Nasdaq led the way with a 2.05% fall. The dollar continued to trade in relatively tight ranges against the majors and US treasury yields stayed close to recent high levels. All led by increased investor concerns of a higher rate hike from the Fed in a couple of weeks’ time.
Investor concerns remain at a high level as we move closer to the key Non-Farm Payroll data release tonight in the New York trading session. Fears that another brutal figure like January’s surprise 517k print could come again this month led to a sharp sell off in US stocks. There was a glimmer of hope for the bulls last night as the weekly unemployment claims rose indicating that maybe rate hikes are starting to be felt in the job market, but that is an anomaly in the recent data and today’s NFP number will have a significantly higher impact. Market expectation is for an increase of 205k and anything far from that will see markets move, certainly anything like January’s number will see the dollar off to the races and stocks take a further tumble.
It is however, not all about the Non- Farms today as in the Asian session we have the latest Bank of Japan Rate decision and associated statements. As usual there is no firm time set for the announcement but expect traders to be poised on the terminals from around noon in Tokyo. Into the London session and we have key GDP numbers out in the UK with expectation sitting at a 0.1% increase m/m. Then of course the big event in the US session although Cad traders will be aware that the Canadian employment data is also out at exactly the same time.
