US non-farm payrolls report will be the main feature today. Markets expect 194k job growth in April. Unemployment rate is expected to drop from 4.1% to 4.0%. Average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.2% mom. Pre-NFP job data saw ADP job grew solid 204k. Employment component of ISM manufacturing and services dropped to 53.6 and 54.2 respectively, both showing slowdown but still well in expansion territory. Weekly jobless claims have been exceptionally low in the prior weeks.
There isn’t much concern on the headline number as the most other data pointed to healthy employment market. Instead, there could be a pleasant surprise of upward revision in March’s dismal figure of 103K. Wage growth will likely continue to be the market mover.
Below are the charts on March data (released on April 6).
