US EARLY MORNING: Index futures continue lower ahead of US jobs report and heavy Fedspeak

APAC and European equities succumbed to Thursday’s negative lead from Wall Street, and US equity futures have been continuing in that direction overnight, but to a lesser extent, and are currently languishing by 0.3-0.5% (RTY -0.3%, YM -0.4%, ES -0.4%, NQ -0.5%). Treasury yields are mixed, although not more than 2bps away from neutral; curve spreads are biased towards steepening, although the magnitude isn’t huge. The Dollar Index has fallen to flat levels in recent trade, after hawkish commentary from ECB’s Villeroy, who said that there was potential for rates to be raised into positive territory this year, which weighed on EGBs and supported the EUR. The focus for today is the April jobs report, as well as a heavy slate of Fedspeak. The jobs numbers are expected to show a further cooling in the rate of payroll additions relative to recent trend rates. Given that the Fed is concentrating more on the inflation part of its mandate, rather than the labour market aspects, the wages data within the jobs report will perhaps be more interesting in informing the course of monetary policy through the end of the year. Desks note that some calendar effects may boost the wages metrics for the month, but any sign of a slowdown in wage pressures will give credence to some of the ‘peak inflation’ arguments made in wake of the slower March CPI and PCE inflation datasets. Chair Powell has already alluded to 50bps rate hikes at the next couple of meetings, so traders might express this in the profile of the hikes that are priced through the end of the year (markets price rates rising to 2.50-2.75% by year-end, with some risks of 2.75-3.00%). Our preview for the jobs data can be accessed here.

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06 May 2022 - 09:23- Fixed IncomeData- Source: Newsquawk

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