Jobs and oil: investors will need the ocular dexterity of Marty Feldman to keep a close eye on Friday’s two prime market catalysts, the FT’s global market overview reports. The always eagerly anticipated US payrolls numbers are set to provide the day’s crucial data point. They are due for release at 1330 GMT and consensus is for an increase of 185,000, according to Reuters. But throughout the global session, investors will also be wary of the oil price — now back above $115 a barrel — which will doubtless be driven by reports of fighting in Libya and civil unrest elsewhere in the region, with Friday usually the day when tensions are at their height. For now, though, the mood was upbeat, with the FTSE All-World index up 0.3 per cent and US stock futures marginally firmer. This was a carry-over from Thursday, when better-than-expected US data — and some handy geopolitical risk amnesia — helped spur a 1.7 per cent rally on Wall Street.

This entry was posted by Izabella Kaminska on Friday, March 4th, 2011 at 9:30 and is featured in The Lunch Wrap (4 Mar 2011) . Tagged with ftse, markets, non-farm payrolls, oil. Edit this entry.