Money Minute Friday 6 December: UK housebuilders and big data from the US

published 6 December 2019

In the UK this morning, we get half-year results from housebuilder Berkeley Group.The builder focuses on London and the southeast, and will provide some insight into how that market is faring ahead of Brexit and the general election.

The big news of the day, however, comes from the US, where we have the latest nonfarm payrolls data.This will tell us how many jobs were created in America last month, and what workers are getting paid for doing those jobs.Markets expect that we'll get a figure of roughly 190,000 jobs, with annual wage inflation coming in at 3.6%.

If either of those numbers come in lower than expected, we might see pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut rates again.But if they meet or beat expectations, the Fed's decision to indicate that it is on hold or now, will appear to be vindicated, whatever pressure the president puts on the central bank.