Risk markets’ pull back was rather shallow last week with help of solid global economic data and indeed, major equity indices finally resumed recent rise after much stronger than expected employment data from US. While DOW is still limited by an intraday high made last year at 12876, the close of 12862 on Friday was the strongest close since May 2008. UK FTSE 100 hit six month high of 5901 before closing near to this level while German DAX also closed at six month high of 6766. Commodity markets were mixed. Gold pared much of the week’s gain... 

The Jan. NFP cards have been dealt and US equities are up more than +1% on the back of the much better than expected figures (243k vs. consensus 140k on the headline number, 257k vs. 160k for private payrolls). In FX, ZAR (South African Rand) gaining +1% vs. USD so far, outpacing most of its G10 and EM counterparts. MXN (Mexican Peso) trailing rand’s upside vs. the buck but +0.72% in daily gains doesn’t look too shabby, and neither does Aussie’s +.49% move higher vs. USD so far. Even the loonie (CAD) is managing to gain an upper hand vs.... 

Highlights Better data drives risk on, Fed QE3 off Still waiting on a Greek debt deal Central banks’ decisions on tap Better data drives risk on, Fed QE3 off The past week ended with a string of better-than-expected data releases from key major economies, suggesting the global recovery may avoid a more worrisome downturn. Mostly better than expected PMI’s from Europe, UK, China and the US were supplemented on Friday by a much stronger US employment report than was expected. We’re cautiously optimistic that the better US jobs report... 

January 2012 non-farm payroll employment gained a robust 243,000 following gains in December and November 2011 of 203,000 and 157,000, respectively. The unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to 8.3% from 8.5% in December. Government jobs fell 14,000 with private payrolls up 257,000. Today’s report provided the encouraging news that both employment gains strengthened going into 2012 and the unemployment rate moved lower. Despite this improvement, however, the unemployment rate remains historically high. To assure further improvement in labour market... 

US non-farm payrolls surprised on the upside, rising 243k. Net revisions in previous months were +3k. This was stronger overall than consensus of 140k and our estimate of 135k. The unemployment rate also surprised by falling further to 8.3% – the lowest level in three years. The payrolls income proxy rose 5.3% (3M AR), which provides a solid base for consumption growth. With the second major gain in a row, the 3M average is still around 201k – unchanged from the previous two months. We believe this will continue to rise into the 150-200k territory...