Despite a terrible picture coming out of the German industrial sector, the European markets were pretty chill at the start of Friday.
The DAX, the index you would expect to be in the red, instead opened flat, just shy of 13100 as investors chose to ignore the sharpest slump in factory output since the financial recession. The CAC, meanwhile, nudged up by around 15 points, keeping the right side of 5800.
The FTSE, which started December at 7350, squeezed itself across 7160 after taking back 0.3%, benefiting from a bounce in its mining and banking sectors.
The pound, broadly confident about the chances of a substantial Tory majority the other side of next Thursday’s general election, paused its gains this Friday. Instead it dipped 0.1% against the dollar and 0.2% against the euro – enough to knock it from its 7-month and 2 and a half-year highs respectively, but not by much.
Though the main focus for the markets at the moment is confusing trade deal situation, with the UK election as a local sideshow for British investors, this afternoon does provide some distraction in the form of the latest nonfarm jobs report. The headline figure is set to jump from 128k to 181k month-on-month, with wage growth up 0.3% from 0.2%, and the unemployment rate steady at 3.6%.
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