- Canada April employment change +7.4K versus +2.5K expected
- Fed’s Williams: Expect growth to slow considerably, inflation and unemployment higher
- Fed’s Williams: Now is a time of great uncertainty and change
- Williams: Policy is in a good place and the Fed has time
- Trump says ‘many trade deals in the hopper’
- Hassett: The UK trade deal is the framework for future deals
- Iran prepares to send Russia launchers for short range ballistic missiles
- Baker Hughes oil rig count -5 at 474
- White House: Trump will not unilaterally bring down tariffs on China
- Four blasts heard in the Indian city of Amritsar
- Bostic: Economy in 2025 is to be less-resilient than earlier expectations
- Swiss president: Switzerland should be one of the next countries for US deal
- Fed’s Barkin: Consumer spending and business investment still very solid
Market:
- WTI crude oil up $1.02 to $60.98
- US 10-year yields up 1.3 bps to 4.38%
- S&P 500 down 0.1%
- Gold up $22 to $3328
- GBP leads, CAD lags
It was another week of fireworks in the market but Friday’s trading was slightly more subdued. The US dollar generally sagged and that might reflect so anxiety about the US-China meeting scheduled for the weekend. Trump floated an 80% tariff rate for China so we’ll see where that all lands.
Whatever happens, it likely tees up a big move to start next week.
The euro was strong early in US trade and continues higher to 1.1292 before stalling ahead of the figure and steadily retreating back to 1.1250 last.
USD/JPY fell at the same time to a session low of 144.83 before recovering 50 pips. It remains the main source of FX volatility as the market weighs tariff outcomes.
The one comment from Williams that stood out to me was him highlighting ‘considerably’ slower growth coming. That’s a different tune from Powell, who repeatedly emphasized the strength in economic data to date.
As for economic reports, the lone notable one was from Canada. The headline was slightly better than expected but the report showed 37K public admin jobs added in what was largely temporary hiring for the election that will unwind in the month ahead. The unemployment rate rose to 6.9% from 6.7%.
That led to some Canadian dollar underperformance, though not in a big way is it’s mostly the trade war that’s driving moves.
This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.
