Friday preview: US non-farm payrolls, stimulus talks in focus

All eyes at the end of the week will be on the latest monthly US jobs report, although investors will also be keeping close tabs on the ongoing Brexit talks and negotiations on Capitol Hill to try and agree on a new government stimulus package.

The median consensus forecast is for a 865,000 increase in non-farm payrolls during the month of September following a rise of 1.37m during the month before.

Unemployment meanwhile is expected to continue trending lower, from 8.4% to 8.2%, alongside a one tenth of a percentage point gain in the year-on-year rate of growth in average hourly earnings to 4.8%.

Regarding stimulus talks between Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers from the two sides were due to meet later on Thursday.

Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, reportedly remained "optimistic" about being able to conclude a deal but did not see a deal happening right now.

Earlier, remarks from the US Secretary of the Treasury and the White House chief of staff had appeared to point to progress having been made.

According to White House spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, Pelosi was not being "serious".

"We raised our offer, but when you lower your offer to 2.2 trillion [dollars], and you ask for direct payments to illegal immigrants, and you ask for certain deportation forgivenesses in your offer, it's not a serious offer."

In remarks to Bloomberg TV however, Pelosi said the major differences between the two sides centred on whether the money was directed at the wealthiest or towards lower-income families.

It was not clear whether the proposals from Democrats that McEnany talked about were a new element in the talks.

One City-based analyst pointed out that the last thing the Trump administration wanted to see was the economic recovery stalling heading into the presidential elections on 3 November, yet another cautioned that the Democrats would want to avoid helping Trump's re-election prospects.

No major economic releases are scheduled in the UK.

Friday 02 October

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Factory Orders (US) (15:00)

Non-Farm Payrolls (US) (13:30)

U. of Michigan Confidence (US) (15:00)

Unemployment Rate (US) (12:30)

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