Last Week Risers & Fallers:

• S&P 500  – The S&P 500 was on a decline this week, dropping by 1.92%. However, it gained 1.15% on Friday, closing at 4357.04.

• Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) –  Pfizer stocks lost 2.25% this week and closed at $42.93 per share on Friday. Merck’s antiviral Covid-19 pill trials were positive, which made investors assume the future demand for vaccines would reduce. The news caused Pfizer and BioNTech stocks to decline.

• WTI Oil – Crude oil was up by 0.95% on Friday, trading at $75.74 per barrel. Oil rallied as traders await OPEC’s decision on production output levels which is due Monday.

• AUDUSD – The AUDUSD pair gained 0.43% on Friday and is trading at 0.7260.  The market is still choppy with no clear direction.  The gain was due to a weaker USD as US jobless claims increased last week.

Major events to watch:

• Australia (AUD): Interest rate decision – Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board members agree on where to set the rate. Traders watch interest rate changes closely as short-term interest rates are the primary factor in currency valuation.  The current interest rate is 0.10%.

The report is due Tuesday 04 October at 05:30 GMT+2

• USA (USD): ADP Non-farm payroll change – The ADP National Employment Report measures the monthly change in non-farm, private employment based on the payroll data of approximately 400,000 U.S. business clients. Two days ahead of government data, the release is a good predictor of the government’s non-farm payroll report. The change in this indicator can result in high market volatility. Last month’s number was 374,000, lower than the expected 613,000.

The report is due Wednesday, 6 October at 14:15 GMT+2

• USA (USD): Non-farm payroll – measures the change of the number of employed people during the previous month; this excludes farmworkers. The last report for July was 235,000 jobs added. This was worse than the forecast of 750,000. Traders closely follow NFP. A higher than forecasted data could be bullish for the USD, whereas a lower value means bearish for the USD. 

The Friday, 8 October at 14:30 GMT+2