Five Things World Business Will be Talking About Today

(Bloomberg) 

It’s jobs day, the G-20 meeting kicks off in Hamburg and the bond market is calming after yesterday’s rout. Here are some of the things people in markets are talking about today.

Jobs day

Payrolls data for June is set to be published at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time — expectations are for an increase of 178,000 positions, with the unemployment rate estimated to have held at 4.3 percent. Yesterday’s ADP data showed fewer workers were added to U.S. payrolls in the month than in May with an increase of 158,000. With employment creation remaining a bright spot for the U.S. economy, a positive report should provide some comfort for a Federal Reserve still inclined to raise rates and reduce the size of its balance sheet, according to Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE.

G-20 begins

Global leaders are meeting in Hamburg, Germany as divisions over topics including trade, climate change and North Korea mean a collegiate atmosphere is unlikely. As usual with these meetings, the gathering is accompanied by large scale anti-capitalist protests, with police using water cannon and pepper spray to break up crowds yesterday. Follow continuing full coverage of the event on Bloomberg.

Bond calm

After yesterday’s global bond market rout that saw German 10-year yields rise about 0.5 percent and similar-maturity Treasury bond yields climb to 2.37 percent, government debt is much calmer this morning. The Bank of Japan may deserve some credit for helping cool the market after it offered to buy benchmark 10-year notes at 0.11 percent in its first fixed-rate purchase operation since February. No bids were tendered for the operation, with yields on the instrument dropping from 0.105 percent to 0.085 percent after the announcement.

Markets slip

Overnight, the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index lost 0.7 percent, with Japan’s Topix index dropping 0.5 percent as lenders were hit following the Bank of Japan’s bond offer. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.4 percent lower at 5:40 a.m. with energy shares sliding to their lowest level since November as the gauge heads for a fifth week without gains. U.S. equity index futures are broadly unchanged as investors await jobs data.

Soft U.K. hard data

Industrial production dropped 0.1 percent in the U.K. in May, and building output shrank 1.2 percent, surprising economists who had been expecting both figures to rise. The pound dropped to as low as $1.2913 after the data was released. There were also more signs that the country’s housing market is cooling, with prices rising at the slowest pace in four years. British business leaders are meeting the government today to give advice on how May’s administration should navigate Brexit.