A shockingly slight economic calendar meant the European markets were left to focus on last Friday’s perfectly-calibrated US non-farm jobs report.
Investors were greeted with a blockbuster non-farm number and a worse than forecast wage growth reading, a combination that allowed the markets to celebrate the US economy without having to fear the hawkish implications of an earnings increase. Those jobs figures were so good that the Dow Jones is threatening to cross 25500 for the first time in almost a fortnight when it opens later this Monday.
The European indices have shown themselves more than willing to ride the bullish wave that followed that jobs data this Monday. The CAC climbed 0.6%, and is now lurking promisingly around 5300, while the DAX shot up around 110 points and is eyeing 12500 for the first time since the end of February.
The FTSE, admittedly still in the green, was slightly less enthusiastic. The UK index rose a comparatively stingy 0.3%, weighed down by a red-tinged set of miners and, ostensibly, news that London house prices have fallen as much as 15% in the last year (though as of yet the housebuilders themselves have avoided any nasty movements lower).
As for the forex markets, there was less action there. The pound and euro continued to have the edge over the dollar, with the greenback still nursing its wounds from last Friday; cable was up 0.2%, with the single currency rising 0.1%.
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