World stocks stalled, Treasuries held on to price gains and the dollar was nursing heavy losses on Friday ahead of U.S. non-farm payrolls data, the next big test for investors looking for more signs of a rates policy shift from the Federal Reserve.
Data overnight including falling U.S. job openings and contracting U.S. manufacturing activity, raised fresh hopes of easing cost pressure and added to evidence that Fed rate hikes may have cooled the economy.
“The U.S. growth story is reasonably strong looking at December payrolls, business inventories and even the current trackings of U.S. GDP are better than average,” said Rich Kelly, head of global strategy at TD Securities in London.
This data would indicate that the U.S. Fed might not need to hike at the same pace, Kelly said, adding: “There will be a long-term cost to the phenomenal growth we’ve seen in the past 10 years, combined with the missteps of policymakers”.
In Europe ,the direct impact of war, inflation and a softer economic starting point would bring rolling recessions, he said.
