Much volatility was seen in the financial markets overnight. Euro tumbled sharply after ECB announced historical easing measures. However, there was no follow through selling in the common currency as it quickly recovered again other major currencies. The dollar index jumped to as high as 81.02 but retreated sharply. It's back at around 80.35 at the time of writing. Overall market sentiments were optimistic as S&P 500 surged by 12.58 pts, or 0.65% to close at new record high of 1940.46. Dow also followed and rose 95.58 pts, or 0.59%, to close at record high of 16836.11. Focus will turn to employment data from US today and another round of volatility is anticipated in the markets.
Economists are expecting US non-farm payroll to show 219k growth in May, while unemployment rate is expected to rise back to 6.4%. The ADP job report released earlier this week was a disappointment, which showed only 179k growth in May. Employment component of ISM manufacturing dropped from 54.7 to 52.8. Employment component of ISM services improved from 51.3 to 52.4. The 4 week-moving average of initial claims dropped to 311.5k. So overall, the leading indicators showed a mixed outlook in the job markets and didn't provide any insight on how the NFP would perform. We'd be prepared for some surprises today.
Yesterday, ECB announced a package of easing measures at the June meeting. Through rate cuts, targeted long-term refinancing operations (TLTRO) and extensions of for the main refinancing operations (MRO), the central bank intended to boost growth in the real economy through lowering banks' funding costs. At the press conference, President Mario Draghi hinted that further rate cuts are less likely while opening the door to the so-called 'private QE' as he talked about the 'preparatory work on ABS purchases'. The euro rebounded after an initial selloff as policymakers signaled that they would take quite some time to assess the impacts of these measures, meaning that no further easing in the near future.
Elsewhere, Japan leading indicator dropped to 106.6 in April. German trade surplus came in wider than expected at EUR 17.7b in April. German industrial production rose 0.2% mom in April. Swiss CPI, UK trade balance and Canada employment will be released later today with US NFP.