Traders Look Towards Data and Tomorrow’s NFP

Traders Look Towards Data and Tomorrow’s NFP
by, Mike King, Bullish University

 

US stock futures are pointing to a flat open this morning as traders are eying the release of economic data and Friday’s much watched non-farm payroll report out of the United States. Binary options strategy should gear up for a fairly quiet day of consolidative trading with the major indices as well as most of the major Forex pairs.

For the most part traders, including those in binary options, have been rather focused on Friday’s release of the employment data which will provide a better look at the Federal Reserve Board’s plan to raise rates this month and in December. The NFP is due out Friday at 0830 EST.

In the oil markets, Brent crude is trading around $51.55 per barrel this morning. This is down 0.6 percent. US crude is also down 0.6 percent at $49.51 per barrel. Binary options traders should be looking at puts with the black gold.

Looking at the corporate front, in the United States today, earnings are on tap for International Speedway, Helen of Troy, and Ruby. All are set to announce before the opening bell.

In Europe, right now, the pan-European STOXX 50 is a bit lower and the Nikkei 225, in Japan, closed a tad higher as the yen lost strength. This was good for the country’s exporters.

Most of the sectors on the STOXX 50 are flat to erratic. Other exchanges, like the FTSE 100 and the CAC 40 are mixed so far on the day. Investors are eying the drop in oil prices carefully.

Bank stocks in the Eurozone are sharply higher after Citi Group recommended in a note for investors to go overweight on the sector. Some of the names, for binary options traders to note, that went buy ae Standard Chartered, BBVA, BNP Paribas and Intesa Sanpaolo.

In individual bank news, asset manager Amundi is will to pay nearly €4 billion for UniCredit’s management arm. This is sending shares of UniCredit into positive territory, and binary options traders should take note. In other European banking news, embattled Italian lender Banca dei Monte Paschi di Siena were deeply in the red hitting a new record low price.

In other corporate news, in Europe, shares of EasyJet have shed over five percent after warning investors of profit problems for the year that ended September 30. They are citing major disruptions and exchange rate fluctuations. Shares of Lufthansa have also hit a four year low on the back of this news.

Dialog Semiconductor, a supplier of Apple Inc. reported a rise in third quarter (3Q) revenue. Their price target was also alleviated by RBC and Natixis. Shares of the firm were firmly higher causing binary options traders to change strategy.

In corporate news out of Asia, shares of Samsung Electronics jumped nearly 3.78 percent after US hedge fund activist manager, published a letter for the Korean firm to reshape their corporate governance structure. This includes splitting the company and increasing the size of the dividend.

Asian and European markets are also getting a bounce from the US where stocks closed sharply higher overnight thanks to a rise in oil prices. This caused binary options traders, trading oil contracts to adjust strategy. There was also positive data from the factory sector boosting sentiment. The US services sector also improved through September. Data beat expectations for both indicators.

Other data showed that US companies created jobs at the slowest pace in six months in September. Their labor market is showing signs of tightening as the pre-cursor of the NFP, the ADP report was released on Wednesday.

All eyes will be on tomorrow’s NFP jobs report due out at 0830 EST. The ADP is considered a preview of this report, but has often not been a true indicator. The Federal Reserve watches the NFP very closely as they will be deciding monetary policy again this month.

 

from Bullish University http://ift.tt/2cWNQT0