What you need to know before the US open
US futures suggest a mixed open for markets, which will have the latest jobs report to digest, with numbers from Markit indicating the health of the services sector later on.
Stocks were left little changed today by the announcement by the ECB that it has, as expected, opted to keep rates on hold, despite falling inflation in parts of the euro area.
Last week's US jobless figures show unemployment claimants rose to 326,000, from 310,000 the week before.
Analysts had been expecting a slight increase to 317,000.
Meanwhile, the trade deficit unexpectedly widened in February to $-42.3bn from $-39.2bn in January.
Corporate news
Apple’s just announced the dates of its Worldwide Developers Conference: it’ll be held at San Fransisco’s Moscone West convention centre from 2 June to 6 June.
And Canadian retail firm Hudson Bay has announced a 74 per cent jump in fourth quarter sales to 2.41bn Canadian dollars from a year earlier, following its acquisition of Saks.
Data in focus
- 2.45pm: US March Markit services PMI
- 3.00pm: US March ISM non-manufacturing PMI