Oil prices up after US missile strike

Oil prices are higher after the US missile strike on Syria overnight. Brent crude briefly rose above $56 a barrel before slipping back and is now up about a dollar at $55.5. US yields also fell, with 10-year yields trading down to 2.30% at one stage before settling at around 2.32%

The yen has gained some ground following the attack, strengthening a bit against the dollar, though the other main exchange rates are largely unchanged (at $1.0650 and 85.5p in the case of EUR/$ and EUR/STG respectively

European equity markets have opened lower this morning and are currently down around half a percent

The President of the ECB, Mario Draghi, reiterates that underlying price pressures in the Euro area remain weak and hence substantial monetary stimulus remains necessary to achieve its inflation objective on a sustained basis

The key release for markets today is the US ‘payrolls’ report for March. The consensus expects an increase in employment of 180,000, an unchanged unemployment rate of 4.7%, and a slight dip to 2.7% in the annual growth in wages