JPY /USD coming off mid-November highs

(Video Transcript)

Japan’s Q3 GDP growth rate print eagerly awaited

Hello, I’m Angeline Ong, and welcome to your look ahead to Friday, 8 December 2023. Now, the set piece is, of course, a jobs report. But ahead of that, we’ve got third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) numbers from Japan. This is the growth rate print.

Just taking a look at the Japanese yen versus the US dollar, it has actually been coming off the highs since around 14 November. And if you can see here, we’ve had this really big red candle there showing a fall of 1.6%. There’s still a lot of talk about perhaps some sort of intervention, but nothing’s been confirmed yet.

Also, bear in mind that Japan’s government has slashed its view on economy. This is back in November, and it first starts downgrade in 10 months. However, things are starting to turn back up again. So, we are now waiting to see what this Q3 GDP growth print tells us.

NFPs key to US investors

From the US, the main set piece is the non-farm payrolls (NFP). We’ve had some data out earlier than week, softer than expected. Painting a softer than expected picture for the US labour market, which then fuelled those expectations of an early rate cut from the Federal Reserve (Fed) in 2024.

The Labour Department’s report expected to show NFPs increased by 180,000 jobs last month after rising by 150,000 in October. We’ve also got the Michigan consumer sentiment data. This is quite key after that Thanksgiving shopping period.

And also, look out for the Baker Hughes oil recount. In terms of earnings, we’ve got Berkeley Group out of the UK.

UK house prices continue upward trend

And we’ve had some fascinating data earlier on in the day this session, rather, from Halifax. Halifax said that the house prices in the UK rose a second consecutive month in November.

The reason why this is interesting is because it comes after similar new data from nationwide, which mirrored the rise or uptick in prices for UK houses, which comes after about a year of prices languishing due to high mortgage rates and also weak demand for homes due to the weak economy.

So, what Berkeley Group says about the outlook will be key, and also what it says about inflation cooling more than expected, because perhaps this might mean that consumers will have more money to push away in terms of savings and to put towards housing.

That’s it for now. For more market-moving news, I’ll be back on beat the street at 1.30pm London time to give you a heads-up to the US trading day. IG’s Angela Barnes will be on at 7.30am to give you a heads-up to the European trading session. Otherwise, follow me on Twitter @AngelineOng. This is IGTV.