- Friday's US equity futures were stable as investors watched a critical employment report in the US for additional clues about whether the labour market is slowing down quickly enough for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. Bond prices dropped.
- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index contracts saw minimal movement on Thursday, as optimism on the future of artificial intelligence and big tech led to gains of 0.8% and 1.5%, respectively, in both benchmarks. Prior to the jobs report, Treasuries showed some hesitancy, with the 10-year yield returning to 4.18% from 4.25% at the beginning of the week.
- For traders assessing whether to hold onto or move past their bets for a significant easing of Fed policy next year, Friday's Nonfarm Payroll report is critical. Encouraged by indications that wage growth and inflation are slowing down, traders have placed bets that at least 1.25 percentage point reduction will occur over the course of the next 12 months. That is more than twice as much as the Federal Reserve officials themselves, who have warned that any talk of rate reduction is currently premature even as they have indicated they are probably done rising rates.
- In the lead-up to the labour market report, fund managers withdrew $4.8 billion from Treasuries, the largest weekly withdrawal since August 2022, according to EPFR Global data.
- The EU considers restarting the WTO case against the US over steel tariffs - Sources.
