The Day at a Glance | May 6 2022

The Top

*Job creation in the United States exceeded estimates during April (428k vs 391k e.); the unemployment rate remains at 3.6%.

*Fixed investment in Mexico decreased during February (-3% monthly; 1.5% annual); private consumption increased 1.3% monthly (9.9% annual).

*Interest rates in Europe could increase to 0% by the end of the year: Francois Villeroy, member of the ECB.

*EU confident it will reach an agreement to stop Russian crude oil imports; Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia are exempt.

*China will substitute the use of foreign computers in the government and state businesses in the next two years.

*Our window of opportunity to act regarding high inflation is slowly closing: Joachim Nagel, member of the ECB.

*Inflation could increase 2.1% in Japan during April.

Economic environment

Solid US labor market. The US economy created 428 thousand jobs during April, figure slightly above the expected 391 thousand. Employment figures for March (-3 thousand to 428) and February (-36 thousand to 714 thousand) were slightly revised downwards, and the total number of jobs is only 1.2 million below the levels seen in February of 2020. Job creation was widespread, but was led by leisure and lodging, manufacturing, transportation and storage. The data confirms that the US market has a solid labor market, with a rate of unemployment that`s close to its pre-pandemic levels after it set at 3.6% for a second consecutive month. The only disappointing figure was the participation rate, which slightly receded to 62.2% (vs 62.4% prev.). Month over month, wages recorded a slower than expected increase (0.3% vs 0.4%e.) and their growth became more moderate by recording a 5.5% annual increase (vs 5.6% prev.), with which it`s confirmed that real income continues to fall, which could turn into a challenge for consumption in the following months.