The Market Close - U.S.Non-Farm Employment Change below expectations with the Dollar falling accordingly - Collins Sarri Statham Investments

Today's Closing Update

U.S. shares were little changed after data showed job growth slowed in May, suggesting that a bounce in the labor market was losing steam.

European and U.K. shares are broadly higher today with shares in Germany leading the region.

Job creation in the States slowed last month, surprising economic forecasters. U.S. non-farm payrolls increased by just 138K, undershooting economists’ forecasts for an increase of 171K. In tandem, estimates for the previous two months were cut by a combined 66K. By sectors, the biggest slowdown in hiring was seen on the services side of the economy, as healthcare and leisure and hospitality firms took on fewer staff.

A raft of major US tech companies have condemned Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, including Facebook and Google. Trump pulled out of the agreement to take action to control the earth’s rising temperature yesterday, joining a group of only two countries in the form of Syria and Nicaragua as the only states not to back the deal. World leaders reacted angrily last week when Trump would not confirm at the G7 summit in Sicily that the US would remain part of the Paris agreement.

With less than a week to go before the UK general election, opinion polls continued to show Labour gaining ground and the Conservative party’s share of the vote shrinking. An Ipsos Mori poll for the Evening Standard showed the Conservatives at 45%, down from 49%, with Labout at 40%, up from 34% previously. The newspaper said women and middle-aged voters were punishing Prime Minister Theresa May following controversies over the “dementia tax” and school meals, with a significant shifts to Jeremy Corbyn’s party among women and the 35-54 age group.

Amec Foster Wheeler has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management contract by BP Oil España to revamp the vacuum distillation unit at the Castellón refinery. The company said this contract builds on the long-term relationship its has with BP Oil in Spain, with the execution of more than 30 successful projects over 25 years at the Castellón refinery. Amec added that the contract win is a successful example of its ‘More 4 Less’ approach of removing complexity and maximising efficiency.

B&M European Value Retail chief executive Simon Arora’s family investment vehicle and a private equity backer have together offloaded £454.3m worth of shares in the discount chain. CD&R, a fund of private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice that is advised by B&M’s ex-Tesco chairman Sir Terry Leahy, and SSA Investments, the Arora family vehicle, together sold 125m shares in B&M at a price of 363.4p apiece. The sale, which Citigroup confirmed the sale on Friday morning, representing about 12.5% of the shares in issue, leaving the Arora family with a 15% stake and CD&R with 4.9%.

NEX Group reported a 34% rise in average daily trading volumes for its European Repo units in May. The interdealer broker, formerly known as ICAP, said May volumes in its US Treasury unit rose 9% year on year to $170.0bn from $156.4bn, and US Repo volumes rose 2% to $216.5bn from $212.7bn. This was weaker than the 16% and 3% year-on-year rises reported for these units in April. But European Repo volumes rose 34% to $226.9bn from $169.2bn, well ahead of the 25% rise reported for April.

Genus noted the decision made by National Milk Records to withdraw from the milk pension fund, a multi-employer scheme that the London-listed company is a part of. National Milk Records released a statement that said it intended to raise funds and withdraw from the milk pension fund so it can “focus its resources on commercial and strategic development, free from the restrictions imposed on the company by its participation in the fund.” The milk pension fund is a multi-employer scheme where Genus has joint and several liability for the total liabilities of the scheme.

Oil Prices tumbled below $50, heading for a second straight week of losses, on worries that U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon a climate pact could spark more crude drilling in the United States, worsening a global glut.

Gold rose to a near six-week high in response to disappointing U.S. non-farm payrolls data that lowered expectations for more aggressive U.S. interest rate increases

Market Close

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,547.6	+3.9	+0.1%
UK 250	20,002.8	-7.9	-0.0%
GER 30	12,821.7	+156.8	+1.2%
FRA 40	5,336.8	+18.2	+0.3%
U.S. 30	21,203.57	+59.39	+0.3%
U.S. 500	2,436.0	+5.9	+0.2%
OIL (BRENT)	49.38	-1.25	-2.5%
GOLD	1,278.45	+12.39	+1.0%

UK Risers & Fallers

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Randgold Resources	7655	+295	+4.0%
Fresnillo	1651	+60	+3.8%
Greggs	1123.5	+34	+3.1%
Tullow	176.05	-10	-5.4%
Taylor Wimpey	184.8	-5.2	-2.7%
Marks & Spencers	367.7	-7.6	-2.0%

Reported Economic Data

Time/Date	Previous	Forecast	Outcome
8:30am: U.K. Construction PMI	53.1	52.7	56.0
12:30pm: U.S.Non-Farm Employment Change	211k	181K	138K
12:30pm: U.S. Unemployment Rate	4.4%	4.4%	4.3%
12:30pm: U.S. Average Hourly Earnings m/m	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%