Markets:
- Gold up $26 to $4003
- WTI crude oil up 35-cents to $59.78
- US 10-year yields flat at 4.09%
- S&P 500 up 0.1%
- Bitcoin up 2.4% to $103,557
- CAD leads, JPY lags
A second consecutive non-farm payrolls report was cancelled on Friday as the government shutdown continues but there is some hope for progress on the weekend as lawmakers meeting in Washington and float some proposals. There is still plenty of digging in and bluster but at least there seems to be movement with food stamps and some flights being cancelled.
The mood early in the day was poor and stock markets sold off hard, with the bottom coming at noon ET as Europe went home. Tech led the slump with the Nasdaq falling as much as 2%. From there, the dip buyers started to weigh in but it wasn’t until late in the day that strong buying kicked in and brought the S&P 500 into slight positive territory and left the Nasdaq with just at 0.2% loss. It was still a tough week for the NQ, down 3% but not nearly as bad as it as a few hours ago.
In FX, the US dollar hit the lows of the day after a soft UMich survey and some dovish inflation numbers in the NY Fed survey. That saw December cut odds tick up and lifted the euro as high as 1.1591.
The big winner on the day was the loonie on a second consecutive very strong jobs report. The kneejerk took USD/CAD down to 1.4060 from 1.4110 and then the turn in risk appetite dragged the pair down to 1.4030.
Gold briefly jumped on what almost looked like a fat finger as it climbed $35 quickly. It promptly gave it all back though and is winding down the week right at the $4000 level, which is right where it started.
