ALTHOUGH the US unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in January, 227,000 jobs were injected into the economy. Trade deficit narrowed to US$44.2bil in December from its last peak of US$45.7bil in November led by higher exports compared with imports. These factors had led to the dollar index to rise this week by 0.7%, closing at 100.62 on Thursday. Meanwhile, the president’s plan to announce a much-anticipated tax reform in the next few weeks caused the S&P 500 to rally by 0.5% with funds flowing into consumer staples, info tech, consumer discretionary, industrials, healthcare and utilities.
Euro depreciated against the dollar by 0.8% amid the stronger dollar and political uncertainty in Europe causing the Euro Stoxx 50 to climb by 0.2%. On Monday, Mario Draghi said that despite inflation in the eurozone remaining subdued, the ECB is prepared to increase the size and/or duration of its asset purchase program if necessary.
