On Friday, Bank of England Governor Bailey stated that the central bank will be dealing with high inflation for some time. Chief Economist Pill stated that the bank is attempting to maintain an element of flexibility in its decision making. In this context, the bank wanted room for manoeuvre to either continue rate hikes or pause the hiking process given the very high degree of uncertainty. He added that markets should not assume that there will be a further 50 basis-point hike at the September meeting. There was only limited reaction to the comments with markets waiting for further evidence on growth and inflation trends. CFTC data recorded a small increase in short Sterling positions to over 56,000 contracts in the latest week from near 54,000 previously as overall sentiment remained weak.
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German industrial production increased 0.4% for June after a revised 0.1% decline the previous month with little impact ahead of the latest US jobs report. Over the weekend, Moody’s cut the Italian rating outlook to negative from stable and markets will monitor political developments ahead of the September 25th election.
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US non-farm payrolls increased 528,000 for July, well above consensus forecasts of a 250,000 gain and the June increases was revised to 398,000 from the previous reading of 372,000. Manufacturing jobs increased 30,000 on the month with all major sectors posting job gains while there was an increase in government jobs of over 50,000 on the month. The unemployment rate edged lower to 3.5% from 3.6% and slightly below market expectations. There was a slight decline in the participation rate with the household survey recording a smaller increase of 179,000 in the number of employed for the month. Average hourly earnings increased 0.5% compared with expectations of 0.3% with an annual increase holding at 5.2% and above expectations of 4.9%. The data overall was stronger than expected which boosted confidence in the economic outlook and also triggered fresh reservations whether the Federal Reserve would be in a position to slow the pace of interest rate increases.
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