Friday’s jobs report will likely hold less significance than next week’s inflation report but is still seen shaping the narrative ahead of this month’s FOMC meeting, if the US produces another negative figure.

The consensus estimate for payrolls is 55,000, in what would be a rebound from last month’s fall of 23,000. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 4.1%, with average hourly earnings seen at 0.3% m/m and 3.1 y/y. The private payroll number is estimated to have gained 50,000 workers in August.

Alongside the headline number, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the preliminary benchmark estimates for 2026. BMO’s Sal Guatieri noted that recent years have seen sizeable downward revisions but predicted the negative streak could end this year. (LS –Continue Reading)

Asian shares rose on Friday as investors embraced a global rally before crucial U.S. jobs data, while bonds found some much needed relief after a top Federal Reserve official cooled rate hike fears and dragged the dollar lower.

The dollar's retreat turbocharged a rally in the yen, which has gained 2.6% this week to trade at 155.7 a dollar, putting it within striking distance of the 155.2 level reached after joint intervention by Tokyo and Washington in late July.

In remarks for a Reuters NEXT Newsmaker event, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said that recent data suggested some signs of disinflation and that, if upcoming reports reinforced that trend, he would favour holding rates steady at this month's policy meeting. (RTRS – Continue Reading)

The Bank of Japan could raise interest rates at three consecutive meetings through December in an extreme scenario where yen weakness persists, according to Nomura Securities Co.

A quarter-point increase this month “looks reasonable,” and “it’s possible that we can have back-to-back rate hikes in October and December if the momentum of yen weakness continues toward 160,” head of FX strategy Japan Yujiro Goto said in a Bloomberg TV interview. (BBG – ontinue Reading)

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to keep her finance minister, Satsuki Katayama, in her job ⁠in a cabinet reshuffle expected later this month, the Mainichi newspaper reported on Friday.

A former finance ministry bureaucrat, ⁠Katayama has played a key role negotiating with US ⁠Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on a rare ⁠joint US-Japan yen intervention in ⁠late July. (RTRS – Continue Reading)