Softer dollar

The dollar is on the back foot this morning ahead of the always closely followed monthly employment report in the US later today, trading at around $1.11 against the euro and at about $1.3150 against sterling.  This leaves the pound – which has had a good week generally – trading a little under 84.5p against the single currency at the start of business

Bond yields in the core markets have reversed some more of their decline that occurred earlier in the week, with benchmark US 10-year yields back up to 1.80% and equivalent UK and German yields  also higher at 0.77% and -0.29% respectively

The latest industrial production figures out of Germany are not pretty, showing output falling by almost 2% in October (from September) to leave it running more than 5% below its level in the same month in 2018

The Atlanta Fed’ estimate of GDP growth in the US nationally in the fourth quarter, based on all relevant data for the quarter so far, is running at 1.5% (annulaised rate) , which is slightly less than the 2.1% pace actually recorded in Q3

The latest employment report in the US is expected to show jobs gains of around 180k in November according to the consensus estimate, with the unemployment rate expected to remain at 3.6% and annual earnings growth also forecast to remain steady at 3%