Oil prices have again climbed higher this morning after Donald Trump effectively dashed any hopes of ending the conflict in The Middle East, which has now reached its fifth week. Trump pressed down on threats to hit Iran extremely hard in the next two to three weeks, specifically noting the plan to target Iran’s electricity infrastructure if a deal with Tehran cannot be agreed.
Iran have consistently denied being involved in any direct talks, leading to a U-turn from Trump’s initial comments of aiming to exit the conflict within the next few weeks. Trump also stated The U.S would not be leading the efforts to reopening the Strait Of Hormuz, claiming the U.S have never relied or will rely on Oil from the Middle Eastern region.
Turning our attention to economic data, we have weekly jobs data in The U.S with initial jobless claims suggesting an increase of 2,000 claims compared to last week’s figures. But investors will be turning to Non-Farm Payrolls which is due to be released tomorrow. Non-Farm Payrolls for March suggest an increase of over 150,000 jobs created, however with this being the most volatile piece of economic data on the market, investors will be cautious against any surprises that could influence US Dollar currency pair movements. The unemployment rate has recently edged up to 4.4% with further expectations that March’s figures could see a slight uptick to 4.5%. Last month Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell described the labour market as being in a Zero-Employment Growth position which if it was to continue along with rising inflation, would only further cement the difficult position the central bank finds themselves in with potential interest rate increases.
GBP/EUR 1.1444 GBP/USD 1.3193 GBP/AED 4.8499
GBP/AUD 1.9186 GBP/CHF 1.0540 GBP/CAD 1.8362
GBP/NZD 2.3104 EUR/USD 1.1518 GBP/ZAR 22.3592