Friday looks quite poorly in terms of macroeconomic readings, and the sole one being worth looking at is the Canadian jobs report for May. On top of that, the G7 summit in Canada starts today.

Notice that the Loonie has been mixed of late being supported by rising oil prices on the one hand, but beleaguered by simmering NAFTA negotiations as well as fresh tariffs on steel and aluminium slapped by the US. Despite these risks we still see upside in the CAD, and it has been reflected in our premium analysis earlier this week. On that account today’s employment release seems to be especially important as the USDCAD keeps struggling with a key technical level. The consensus points to a rise in employment by 23.5k (a net change) while the jobless rate ought to stay at 5.8%. As it’s the case in the US, wage growth should draw most of attention (it’s much less volatile compared to monthly employment changes), and it’s forecast to slow down to 3.2% from 3.3%, but notice that a base effect will be getting less supportive of higher dynamics. At the same time we’ll be offered the capacity utilization rate for the first quarter being a helpful indicator for assessing further developments in investments. The rate is forecast to tick down to 86.4% from 86%. All of these data will be released at 1:30 pm BST.

Oil traders should take a look at the weekly oil rigs count from Baker Hughes (6:00 pm BST) which is expected to show further rises. Anyway, it’s rarely to be a market mover.

Central bank speakers for today:

• 8:15 am BST – ECB’s Mersch
• 2:30 pm BST – ECB’s Visco

The CAD continues trading on the verge of its pivotal technical line ahead of the jobs report. Source: xStation5