• By
• David Cottle
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Good Morning Europe

Well, payrolls Friday is here again, the point in the monthly data cycle when we see arguably the most important global release, official U.S. labor stats.

According to our survey of economists the market is looking for an increase of 215,000 in the key nonfarm payrolls count for April. That would be a marked improvement on the 192,000 rise seen in March. All the same, given the Federal Reserve’s apparent optimism that the U.S. economy is going to come ravening out of its winter lull, an on-target outturn might not now be enough to set markets alight. It might rather take extremes of either strength or weakness to really move them this time. Investors had their fill of disappointment last month when they were cheated of their hopes for a very strong number.

While we wait we’ll get a look at how the euro zone’s various manufacturing sectors are doing with final April Purchasing Managers Indexes due from Italy, France and Germany, as well as from the European Union as a whole. France still has a bit to prove after recent weak data.

By David Cottle

Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks (Thursday close): DJIA down 0.1%, Nasdaq up 0.3%, SP 500 flat. Nikkei down 0.2%. June FTSE and SP both now flat. Brent crude up two cents at $107.78. Gold up 90 cents at $1284.30. EUR/USD now at $1.3858, below $1.3870 late Thursday in New York. USD/JPY at ¥102.47, above ¥102.32. Ten-year T-note yields 2.62%, Bund 1.47% and Gilt 2.63%.

Watch For: Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index surveys from Germany, euro zone and E.U. Construction PMI out of the UK. Euro-zone unemployment. Then comes the little matter of official U.S. labor stats, including of course non-farm payrolls.

What you may have missed from MoneyBeat:

Here’s What Analysts Are Saying About Friday’s Nonfarm Payrolls: U.S. non-farm payrolls data will be watched particularly closely this Friday, at the end of what has turned out to be the second-worst quarter for economic growth since the recession ended in mid-2009. Here’s what investors, economists and strategists are saying ahead of that big and closely-watched number.

Hunt for Yield Fails to Stretch to Icelandic Bank: Banks in some of Europe’s most extreme former trouble spots have been returning to the bond market. Not everybody has been successful. Last month, Iceland’s Arion Banki started canvassing investors about issuing a euro-denominated bond, hoping to latch onto the junk-bond feeding-frenzy. If the name Arion doesn’t mean much to you, think of it this way: it is the reincarnation of Kaupthing Bank.

Forces Build Against the U.K. Property Market: It’s not just London that’s booming. U.K. house prices overall are positing double digit annual rises. But there are also signs of rising strain, suggesting the levitating property market may hit turbulence sooner than people think.

Midsized Companies Face a Tough Hunt for Funds: Medium-sized European companies could find themselves treading on thin ice.

Breaking Out Bad Demographics: Everyone knows Japan has a demographic problem. Its people are growing older and not enough babies are being born, which has led to an overall shrinking of the population. But what’s less commonly known is that much of Europe suffers from the same problem.

BoE’s Haldane Offers Few Policy Clues: Andrew Haldane, the Bank of England’s big thinker on financial stability, takes up a new role setting interest rates as the central bank’s chief economist in June but his views on monetary policy are largely unknown.

Lloyds Shows Why Boring is Beautiful: The U.K. government could be forgiven for feeling happy that at least one of its charges in the financial sector is showing fresh signs of health.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Pfizer Raises Bid for AstraZeneca: Pfizer has raised its bid for AstraZeneca to £50 ($84.47) a share, valuing the U.K. drug maker at £63 billion ($106.43 billion).

RBS First-Quarter Profit Rises: Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday reported a £1.2 billion net profit ($2.02 billion) in the first quarter of the year compared with a profit of £393 million a year earlier.

Corporate Germany Urges Halt on Sanctions: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is carrying a clear message from Germany’s business lobby when she meets President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss Ukraine: No more sanctions on Russia.

Barclays Asia CEO to Retire: Barclays’s top executive in Asia plans to retire from the bank, paving the way for a shake-up of its management team in the region.

Retirement Investors Flock Back to Stocks: Retirement investors are putting more money into stocks than they have since markets were slammed by the financial crisis six years ago.

Exxon Sticks With Russia: Exxon is pushing ahead with its plans to drill in Russia’s Arctic even though deteriorating relations between Moscow and Washington have increased the risks.

U.K. Bans Former UBS Trader: The U.K.’s financial regulator has banned former UBS trader John Hughes for failings related to the $2.3 billion unauthorized trading losses racked up by Kweku Adoboli.