USD

Very good
employment data from the US on Friday. Nonfarm payrolls data showed that
288,000 new jobs were created in the economy in April, far above the 210,000
expected and is the biggest rise since January 2012. There were also more jobs
created in previous months than were first calculated. March’s Nonfarm payrolls
data has been revised upwards from 192,000 to 203,000, and February’s has been
increased to 220,000 from 197,000.

USD

Very good
employment data from the US on Friday. Nonfarm payrolls data showed that
288,000 new jobs were created in the economy in April, far above the 210,000
expected and is the biggest rise since January 2012. There were also more jobs
created in previous months than were first calculated. March’s Nonfarm payrolls
data has been revised upwards from 192,000 to 203,000, and February’s has been
increased to 220,000 from 197,000.

The
unemployment rate also fell to 6.3%, the lowest level since September 2008.
However, this data is slightly skewed due to the labour force participation
rate (this measures the proportion of people either working or looking for
work). This fell to 62.8% from 63.2% in March. This has contributed to the large
drop in the unemployment rate. 

However,
despite the encouraging data, the US dollar has continued to weaken across the
board, with GBPUSD near making fresh 5 year highs.

EUR

The focus
was on manufacturing data in the Eurozone where there was a pickup in activity
last month. The Eurozone PMI beat forecasts to come in at 53.4. Data for
individual countries was good on the whole, however France’s PMI slid back to
51.2 from 52.1.

GBP

The only
data out from the UK on Friday was construction PMI. This showed the 12th
consecutive month of growth, with house builders driving the sector. The PMI
figure came in 60.8 which is down from 62.5 in March, however, still shows
considerable growth as it is well above the 50 level.

Key Announcements:

13:30pm –
USD – Trade Balance (USA): Expected to fall to –US$40.3bn.