All eyes on NFPs, and on EV supply-chain [Video]

It’s NFP Friday, and the market mood is not too bad when we think that the major news in the wire point that the rapidly spreading delta variant is about to threaten the economic recovery sooner rather than later.

There are event cancellations, companies pushing back their plans to bring employees back to office and a clear shift in consumer behaviour.

Happily, the company earnings are relatively strong to keep investors from sliding into a new depression.

The US economy is expected to have added 870’000 nonfarm jobs in July, slightly more than last month’s 850’000. However, the analyst estimates tend to be inaccurate these days, therefore, we could well see a number significantly higher or lower than the consensus of analyst estimates.

How would the market react to a softer or a stronger-than-expected figure is what I discuss in this episode.

Also, in commodities, the recent rebound in the US 10-year yield is now pressuring gold prices lower. One curious thing about the significant easing in the US 10-year yield was the fact that the yellow metal remained relatively unresponsive to it, hinting that the low US yields mostly boosted appetite in the better-paying stock markets. In this respect, the yellow metal has a better chance to break its 1790/1830 range to the downside, unless the US prints an abnormally low jobs data that throws the investor appetite against the wall.

Elsewhere, Joe Biden’s statement that half of US car sales should be electric or hybrid by 2030 gives a boost to electric cars, and why not enlarge the scope and invest in battery makers and other companies in the supply chain?

Finally, Ethereum’s London fork happened smoothly and Bitcoin is preparing to test the $42K this weekend.