The new month, quarter, and second half kicked off in a cautious mood, with U.S. Treasury yields jumping overnight as the June jobs report looms, and investors are already looking ahead to the second-quarter earnings season.
US Labor Market
The U.S. labor market may be picking up steam. The so-called JOLTS report for April had shown available jobs surging, but many economists argued that the report was likely an outlier and would be revised down. However, May’s report saw openings rise yet again to reach a two-year high.
ADP’s private-sector jobs numbers are due today, while the June national payrolls report will come out a day early on Thursday owing to Friday’s Independence Day holiday.
Global Markets
In FX markets, Japan’s yen sliced through 162 per dollar on Tuesday to new 40-year lows, but there’s been no sign of intervention to halt it so far.
Staying in Asia, South Korea’s overall exports surged over 70% last month, their fastest pace in nearly 50 years, fueled by a blistering 200% increase in chip exports. This makes the country only the fourth in the world to eclipse $100 billion in monthly exports.
Back on Wall Street, attention is already drifting to the upcoming second-quarter earnings season. That’s understandable given how transformative the last one was for the AI spending theme and the chip sector.
Aggregate annual profit growth is expected to be about 22%, but 60% of that is in the chip and tech equipment sector, and just two firms account for 40% of it: Nvidia and Micron.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
