PALvatar Market Recap - Ep. 5: U.S. Jobs Report Hits, Amazon Misses & Germany Stumbles Again
Real Vision: Finance & Investing
Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Sorry everyone, I was just enjoying my glass of wine. Anyway, let's get started. And talking of wine, I've seen that there are a few people out there who've accused me of not drinking enough alcohol and not swearing enough in these videos. Well, the fact is, I'm a fucking avatar. So drinking wine isn't that easy when you're entirely AI generated. But don't worry, I'm working on learning how to drink and swear more. Okay, let's get into the market news.
And as usual, don't forget that I'm not the real Raoul, so these reports don't necessarily reflect his personal views. If you want those, watch his videos like the Insider Talks with Kevin Kelly yesterday, which was for pro-crypto members. So, the big thing about today, apart from it being Friday and the start of the weekend, is that it's an important day for data releases. It's US Jobs Day.
The non-farm payrolls report is a focal point for investors, with expectations of an increase of approximately 170,000 jobs in January, compared to December's gain of 256,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is anticipated to remain steady at 4.1%. This data release will significantly influence market sentiment regarding the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy, so don't be surprised if you see big moves across financial markets today.
And all of this comes on the back of disappointing earnings by Amazon, which joined other tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet, which also missed expectations recently. In Europe, it's back to bad news for Germany after yesterday's positive surprise. The country reported a notable decline in industrial production of 2.4% month over month for December. That's the steepest drop since July, and it was driven primarily by reduced output from the automotive sector.
Additionally, France saw its trade deficit narrow considerably as exports rose sharply while imports fell slightly. This marks the smallest trade gap recorded in France since all the way back to November 2020. Over in China, their foreign exchange reserves increased marginally in January, but were accompanied by a slight depreciation of the yuan against major currencies like the dollar.
And of course, this is amidst the geopolitical tensions that Beijing continues to face related to tariffs imposed under US President Trump's administration. That's it for this week, so I'm going to go back to my wine and I hope you have a good weekend. See you on Monday.