PRODUCT PROFILE

Latest Dublin Prices

ISEQ up ahead of US employment data

Friday, October 05 09:06:49

The ISEQ is up 14 points at 3,316 this morning ahead of some important US employment and unemployment figures due out today. NCB Stockbrokers looks at what is expected:

Going into yesterday's updates from the world's major central banks one would be forgiven for thinking that central bankers have a tendency for being predictable. With regard to the Bank of England, all 50 of the economists Bloomberg surveyed in advance of the decision called its 'no change' on its 0.5pc benchmark rate correctly, while the decision to maintain the size of the £375bn Asset Purchase Programme was similarly unanimously anticipated. In the case of the ECB, 48 of the 52 central bank watchers polled were on the money with their 'as you were' (0.75pc) forecast.

While we will have to wait until October 17 to see if the minutes of the BOE meeting yield anything of note, in terms of the ECB yesterday afternoon's presser brought few surprises from Mario Draghi. He reaffirmed that the ECB is "ready to undertake OMTs, once all the prerequisites are in place", however, the country that is most likely to take him up on this offer, Spain, continues to drag its heels on whether or not to get involved.

Closer to home, referring to recent comments by the finance ministers of Germany, Finland and the Netherlands about the ESM and legacy bank debts, Draghi said that policymakers will need to "discuss and take a stance on exactly what is meant by legacy assets". Near-term clarity on this issue would clearly be very welcome.

Across the Atlantic, the minutes from last month's Federal Open Market Committee meeting unsurprisingly showed a high level of consensus, with "all members but one [agreeing] that the outlook for economic activity and inflation called for additional monetary accommodation" in the meeting that signed off on a third round of quantitative easing. Wrapping up the central bank newsflow, the Bank of Japan maintained both its target rate (0.1pc) and the size of its asset-purchase fund overnight, a decision that was correctly forecast by all 20 analysts surveyed ahead of the meeting according to NCB Stockbrokers.