020 7898 0500It was always likely that growth in the US from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2018 was going to show a slowdown, but not quite as much as first thought. The first estimate showed a decline from 2.9% to 2.3%, but the second estimate – released yesterday – showed that the actual figure was 2.2%.
In addition, the ADP employment report showed there was an increase of 178,000 jobs in May, but this was below the expected 190,000 rise. It makes for a fascinating build-up to the non-farm payrolls released on Friday. Combined, the two pieces of data were enough to send the dollar weaker against sterling and the euro, and it was particularly weak against the latter.
Today we’ll see initial jobless claims up to 26 May 2018, but Friday is the next day for major releases, with the aforementioned non-farm payrolls, as well as the manufacturing PMI for May.
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