US: Stock futures maintain slide on jobs data; gold, Euro climb

Singapore (Apr 6)   US stock futures maintained most of the decline spurred by data Friday that showed the weakest American hiring additions in more than a year. Japanese equities were indicated lower and gold rallied with the euro.

Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures retreated 0.8 per cent from their close on April 2 as of 8.17am in Tokyo, maintaining most of the 1 per cent decline in abbreviated trading Friday. Contracts on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.7 per cent in Osaka. Gold rallied 0.8 per cent, while the euro climbed 0.4 per cent to US$1.1013. Oil added 1.4 per cent in New York.

The US currency tumbled with equities futures on Friday, while Treasuries surged as the payrolls report damped the outlook for the timing of an interest-rate increase by the Federal Reserve. The 126,000 workers added in March was fewer than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey and the lowest monthly total since December 2013. New York Fed President William C. Dudley speaks today.

"There's no doubt it is a bad report and makes it much less likely the Fed will be ready to go by June," wrote Elsa Lignos, a senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets LLC, in a note dated April 6. US exchanges reopen at 9.30am on Monday in New York after being closed for the Good Friday holiday.

Source: BusinessTimes.singapore