Main focus on US average hourly earnings - Danske

In the view of analysts at Danske Bank, the main market-moving event for today is likely to be the US labor market report due on the cards at 1230 GMT.

Key Quotes:

“The US jobs report for September is today's highlight. We estimate non-farm payrolls rose 190,000 in line with the recent trend, which may be sufficient to lower the unemployment rate to 3.8% from 3.9%.

Most focus will be on average hourly earnings, where the monthly growth rates have been on the high side for a few months now, indicating that wage growth has begun to move higher due to the tight labour market.

We estimate average hourly earnings rose +0.25% m/m, which would lead to a decline in the annual growth rate to 2.7% (close call between 2.7% and 2.8%) from 2.9%. The Fed is likely to continue hiking at a gradual pace.

Otherwise, focus in the markets remains on politics, not least the EU-Italy budget clash and the Brexit negotiations, which are about to restart now the Conservative Party Conference is over.”