SHANGHAI, Aug. 7 (SMM) – US non-farm payrolls number will be released Friday night. July’s planned layoffs at US companies, ISM non-manufacturing PMI and sub-index of Markit manufacturing PMI were disappointing. Consequently, markets expect non-farm payrolls to be downbeat.
The Bank of England left interest rates unchanged at 0.5% and also kept the scale of quantitative easing unchanged at GBP 375 billion. One committee agreed to raise interest rate. The Bank of England cut forecast for short-term inflation, beating hope for interest rates hike. Great Britain pound thus tumbled.
According to the Atlanta Fed GDPNow forecasting model, US Q3’s seasonally GDP may only rise 1%, 2% lower than Wall Street’s forecast. Should this turn out to be true, it will reflect that US economy is facing pressures and Fed interest rate hike will be delayed. US initial jobless claims for last week grew 3,000 week-on-week this week, below 300,000 for straight 22 weeks. Average value of the recent four weeks’ initial jobless claims hit a 42-year low, mirror a robust labor market.
US and European stocks slumped across the board. WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil futures contracts for September delivery ended down USD 0.49/bbl at USD 44.66/bbl, its lowest since March 19. US dollar index decreased 0.05%. LME base metals all fell expect tin and nickel.