Summary:

  • NFP report shows sharp recovery in US jobs but still misses forecasts
  • Brief USD weakness reverses after stellar ISM release
  • Canadian dollar soars after strong employment data
  • UK services PMI beats but does little to support GBP
  • SPA35 falls back as Catalan tensions resurface
  • Other Cryptos join in Bitcoin’s recent rally

The highly anticipated US jobs report showed an impressive recovery but still fell short of consensus forecasts. A reading of 261k is impressive by many accounts but against calls for 300k+ it came up a little short. Perhaps the bigger disappointment in the report was the average earnings number, which fell to flat m/m after a rise of 0.5% previously. 

Whilst the US NFP attracts the Lion’s share of the attention the Canadian equivalent is released at the same time and can often provide a nice opportunity – especially if we get a divergence in the releases as we have today (Weaker US and strong Canadian). For the month of October the Canadian economy filled 35.2k additional jobs which was significantly above the 15k expected and the prior month showed a rise of 10k. 

A strong rise in the ISM non-manufacturing PMI has more than offset a softer NFP report as far as the markets are concerned with the greenback on the rise and the EURUSD hitting its lowest level of the day. A print of 60.1 is highly impressive and is in fact the strongest headline number since 2005. 

UK services PMI ends a stormy week for the British currency. Let’s sump up that earlier we got better readings when it comes to manufacturing and construction PMIs, in turn today the services sector joined this upbeat trend. On the other hand details aren’t so conducive to the overall outlook for the UK economy. Either way, composite PMI, consisting of services, manufacturing and construction, managed to climb to 55.8, the highest since April.

It’s been a fairly quiet end to the week for global stock markets so far today, with the session seeing fairly subdued trade in the most widely followed indices. The SPA35 has had a big day though, with the market dropping sharply and in doing so handing back the majority of the gains made earlier this week.  

Bitcoin doesn’t slow down its outstanding pace and continues marching higher. While Bitcoin has been making an astounding rally its major peers have lagged behind. Nonetheless two of them might be already ready to commence a move to the upside given a technical view. We mean Litecoin (LTCUSD) and Ripple (XRPUSD).