Friday preview: Non-farm payrolls to seal US rate hike decision

Friday this week is non-farm payrolls day, with very little in the way of corporate news on the UK calendar.

UK construction data via Markit's construction purchasing managers' index is due at 0930 BST. The consensus forecast is for a softening to 52.7 in May from the 53.1 a month ago.

The US non-farm payroll report is due at 1330 BST, a month after April saw a 211,000 increase, average hourly earnings up 0.3% month-on-month and the national unemployment rate was 4.4%.

The unemployment rate for May is expected to stay the same, while the consensus forecast is for an NFP print of 185,000. Average hourly earnings growth is seen easing to 0.2%.

"Average wage growth has picked up over the past two years but remains sluggish compared with previous economic expansions," said HSBC.

"We forecast a 0.1% increase in average hourly earnings in May, with the year-on-year rate of increase staying at 2.5%."

The ADP employment report (at 1315 BST on Thursday) was seen as a lead indicator, despite its tendency to not provide an accurate indication of the official NFP release.

"A number in line with expectations would suggest tomorrow’s number will be good enough to convince the Federal Reserve that a hike at the meeting in two weeks’ time is still a good decision," said analyst Craig Erlam at Oanda.

"Given the data we’ve seen since the start of the year though, a bad report tomorrow may worry some officials and it will be interesting to see what that does to market expectations."

A June hike is already 91% priced in to the market, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Friday June 02

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Balance of Trade (US) (13:30)
Non-Farm Payrolls (US) (13:30)
Producer Price Index (EU) (10:00)
Unemployment Rate (US) (12:30)

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
PMI Construction (09:30)

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Sage Group

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Toro Limited

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Admiral Group, ICG-Longbow Senior Secured UK Property Debt Investments Ltd, National Grid

AGMS
Amec Foster Wheeler, GoldStone Resources Ltd, Honeycomb Investment Trust, Mail.ru Group Ltd GDR (Reg S), Manx Financial Group, Silence Therapeutics, Sphere Medical Holding

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Admiral Group, Bodycote, Clarkson, H&T Group, Highcroft Investment, Informa, Intertek Group, Luceco , NMC Health, North Midland Construction, Playtech, Polypipe Group , Porvair, Rightmove, TT Electronics, Weiss Korea Opportunity Fund Ltd