Equities track Wall Street rally ahead of Nonfarm Payrolls - 2.5.2025

The Dollar strengthening has halted currently. The live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, rose 0.6% on Thursday.

Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD slowed their sliding yesterday while the SP Global Manufacturing PMI final reading confirmed UK manufacturing sector continued contracting in April . Both euro and Pound are higher against the dollar currently. USD/JPY accelerated its climbing while AUD/USD reversed its advancing on Thursday with both the yen and Australian dollar higher against the Greenback currently.

US stock market futures are up currently ahead of Nonfarm Payrolls report due at 14:30 CET with the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes steady at 4.231%. The three main stock benchmarks ended sharply higher on Thursday recording daily gains in the range from 0.2% to 1.5% led by tech shares after strong results from Microsoft and Facebook parent Meta while Institute for Supply Management reported US manufacturing sector continued contracting in March.

European stock markets futures are higher currently ahead of reopening after most markets were closed on Thursday for the May 1 holiday. Asian stock indexes futures are tracking overnight Wall Street rally with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng leading gains as Beijing said it was evaluating the possibility of trade talks with the US adding that if the US wanted to talk, it must show sincerity and cancel the unilateral tariffs.

Brent is edging up presently as China signaled openness to US trade talks. Prices reversed sliding on Thursday as president Trump threatened secondary sanctions on Iran after a fourth round of US-Iran talks was postponed for "logistical reasons." West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 1.8% and are higher currently. Brent futures added 1.8% to $62.13 a barrel on Thursday.