- Friday nights Non-Farm payrolls outperformed, with a 211K employment change, and a lower unemployment rate of 4.4%, both beating market expectations. Ave hourly earnings also stable at 0.3%. Nasdaq and S&P500 hit new all-time highs, with the DOW briefly trading above the 21,000 level.
- Macron beat LePen in a landslide victory in the French elections on Sunday night, gaining approximately 65% of the French vote. The EUR/USD gapping up a modest 20pips on this mornings open. Gold gapping $2.50 to the downside. Almost all markets, including equity indices, have closed their gaps.
- Any short bets in the EUR/USD expecting a Le Pen win, and short term longs taking profit will look to cover this morning. Generally with a May lead UK, and a strengthening Eurozone, long term, Euro pairs such as EUR/JPY, EUR/AUS, likely to be bought on deep dips.
- Given the election outcome, settling geopolitical tensions, strong NFP numbers and the Fed sticking on course for this years planned rate hikes, Gold has sold off reaching 7-week lows. For the 2017 uptrend to continue gold will need to find support and bounce off 1,220/200 level.
- Australian retail sales tomorrow at 11:30am, with the Annual Budget Release set for 7:30pm. House prices and household indebtedness, infrastructure spending, debt levels and Australia’s AAA rating will be some key topics to keep an eye during and post release.
- Aussie dollar has bounced from 0.7370 level to trade 40 pips higher. Offers expected at 0.7450/60 levels.
Today’s Economic calendar (AEST)
- China Trade Balance (approx. Midday)
