Morning Fundamental Compass Direction: September 26, 2013

The labour market in the U.S. continues to show signs of strength with the number of people applying for unemployment benefits last week lower than expected. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims kin the week ending September 21 fell by 5,000 to 305,000. Furthermore, job losses were also lower than ex-pected with many employers more confident of a sustained recovery. At the same time, higher borrowing costs appear to be restricting corporate expansion. U.S. GDP is now running at a 2.5% annualised rate.

The debt ceiling crisis is once again in the limelight as continued differences of opinion between Democrats and Republicans threaten to trigger a government shut down on October 1. John Boehner, the House Speaker has said that the debt ceiling debate will be a "whale of a fight". Republicans are seeking spending cuts, looser regulations and a delay in Obamacare in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling. President Obama has consistently said that he will not negotiate on what some see as his key legislative achievement in his health laws.

U.S. equity markets have broken a five day run of losses that had been precipitated by growing concerns over the U.S. debt ceiling. Markets were buoyed by better than expected employment data. EBay gained more than 4.5% on an acquisition while Bed Bath and Beyond also gained on a higher revision to earnings forecasts. The S&P 500 has closed 0.35% higher at 1,698.67. Earlier in Europe, the DAX fell marginally by 0.02% while the FTSE gained 0.21%.

Commodities have performed well overnight with the major indexes gaining more than 0.3%. WTI has halted a string of losses to firm marginally to $102.90. we expect that a breach of $100.00 is imminent. Precious met-als lost ground as prices continue to yo-yo. Gold lost 0.9% to $1,324 while silver fell 0.78% to $21.70. Copper surged 0.9%. Agricultural commodities were mixed.