The EUR is the strongest and the AUD is the weakest as NA traders enter for the day
As the North American session begins, the
EUR is the strongest of the major
currencies while the AUD is the weakest. The USD is tilting to the upside with gains against all the major currencies with the exception of the EUR and the JPY. The strongest gains verse the AUD, CAD and NZD.
The US jobs report will be released at 8:30 AM ET with expectations for US job gains of 145K (although estimates are varied). If there is a tilt, it would be to definitely be to the downside (see: Another warning about downside risk to Friday’s NFP report).
Recall the ADP nonfarm payroll estimate came in at -301K. Fed governors have been warning of a weaker than expected jobs report due to omicron. The initial claims data point at to that as well as they were higher during the survey week (and month).
Canada will also release her jobs report at 8:30 AM within employment change expected -121.5K due to omicron. That comes after a 54.7K gain last month. The unemployment rate is expected at 6.3% versus 5.9%.
Most of the key earnings are now out after Amazon’s stellar EPS beat yesterday after the close.
- EPS $27.75 which smashed estimates of $3.65
- Rev $137.41 vs137.55 est.
However, earnings were boosted by a one-off gain of about $11.8 billion on Rivian shares, leading to a nearly doubling from a year ago the net profit numbers. Rivian shares have since fallen 40% since the end of the year.
The good news is that Amazon Web services continue to turn out cash with a profit of $5 billion. The company did lose $1.8 million on its core e-commerce due to higher costs. However, they announced a hike in their subscriptions for the new year to account for those increases (up about $20 for the year).
US stocks are set open mixed with the NASDAQ and S&P higher. But the Dow is lower. US yields are also mixed with the short end higher and the longer end lower. European yields are also higher after the ECB hinted finally that they may look to raise rates in 2022.
In other markets, the morning snapshot shows:
- Spot gold is trading up $6.19 or 0.35% $1811.
- Spot silver is up eight cents or 0.34% at $22.48
- WTI crude oil futures are trading up $1.90 at $92.17. That represents another seven year high for the crude oil as concerns about Russia/Ukraine remain elevated
- The price of bitcoin is trading higher at $37,942
The premarket for US stocks, the major indices are mixed:
- Dow industrial average -101 points. After yesterday’s -518.17 point decline
- S&P index +8 points. After yesterday’s -111.94 point decline
- NASDAQ index +110 points after yesterday’s -538.73 point decline
In the European equity markets, the major indices are lower as they play catch-up to the sharp falls in the US stocks yesterday afternoon:
- German DAX, -1.25%
- France’s CAC -0.7%
- UK’s FTSE 100 unchanged
- Spain’s Ibex -1.1%
- Italy’s FTSE MIB -1.45%
In the US debt market, the yields are mixed with the short end higher and the longer end lower
In the European debt market, yields are mostly higher after the ECB signaled the potential for a rate hike in 2022 at their policy meeting yesterday.