31 August 2011 at 6:27 GMT
Risk got a bit of a lift after a horrible (but predictable) consumer confidence reading on the back of the FOMC Minutes, which shows that easing options were actively discussed at the meeting. As part of the countdown to Nonfarm Payrolls we get ADP Employment today, which is expected to show robust growth in private sector jobs.
ADP Employment: Though tomorrow's ISM Manufacturing report will also garner plenty of attention the big one this week is Friday's Employment report. We start our countdown with the ADP Employment report today at 12:15 (GMT), which consensus expects will show an increase of 100,000 in August. The difference between ADP Employment and
Private Payrolls has averaged 56,000 over the last tvelwe months and 50,500 over the last six.
Chicago PMI: ahead of tomorrow's ISM Manufacturing we get the Chicago Fed's PMI index today, which showed healthy expansion at 58.8 though it has been more optimistic than the national PMI this year. Consensus looks for the growth in manufacturing to have slowed in August, but not completely and analysts' thus target 53.2 (median) though a negative surprise cannot be ruled out considering the other regional Fed indices already released for August.
