hoangtri
12-16-2013, 08:57 AM
Financial markets are in a state of suspended animation on Friday as tension mounted ahead of jobs data that could make or break the case for an imminent scaling back in U.S. stimulus.In the U.S., the back and forth as to when the Federal Reserve will begin to halt the flow of cheap dollars has dominated trading for months and the main U.S. jobs indicator – non-farm payrolls, due at 1330 GMT – may finally tip the balance. Top U.S. data has already come in strongly this week triggering a hefty sell-off in global stock and bond markets that had in most cases been at multi-year highs. The median forecast is for an increase of 180,000 in U.S. payrolls with the jobless rate steady at 7.2 percent. The market would tend to see anything over 200,000 as greatly adding to the chances of a start to tapering this month, while a result under 150,000 would diminish the risk.In E.U. Trade, European bourses made a cautious recovery in early trade, but the week’s turbulence, amplified by the diverging fortunes of the region’s top economies, left the FTSEurofirst 300 index heading for its worst week in six months. European shares are on track to snap a four-day run of falls as London’s FTSE, Paris’s CAC 40 and Frankfurt’s Dax all gained 0.4 to 0.6 percent. The Bundesbank gave German stocks a boost by raising its growth forecasts for the euro zone’s largest economy for this year and next.In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei has also managed to steady after steep falls in the previous two days. It closed up 0.8 percent, outperforming the rest of Asia. Shanghai stocks also stood out, slipping 0.5 percent after China set its yuan at a record high, continuing its slow appreciation.In currencies, the dollar had started to pull away from a five-week low as European trading gathered pace, while the euro took a breather ahead of the U.S. jobs data after hitting a five-week high yesterday. The euro traded at five-week highs against the dollar early in Asia on Friday, having powered higher overnight after the European Central Bank gave no fresh indication that it would ease policy anytime soon. Traders had snapped up the euro zone’s shared currency after the bloc’s central bank, the ECB, appeared in no rush at its last meeting of the year to take any further action to support the bloc’s still-fragmented economy. The single currency steadied at $1.3655 having finally cracked tough resistance at $1.3620.In commodities, spot gold held at $1,224 an ounce, heading for a loss for the week of 2 percent. U.S. crude is flat at $97.38, cementing gains of 5 percent for the week so far thanks to a drop in U.S. held stocks.Disclaimer: The information in this analysis is collected from different sources and should serve for informative purposes only. The author shall not be held responsible for the validity of the presented information. No part of this analysis recommends the purchase or sale of a currency pair or any other financial instrument.