NEW YORK (Reuters) – The plunge in crude oil markets this week to a six-month low was likely driven by worries about Chinese economic growth, persistently high inventories, and fund positioning.

U.S. crude oil CLc1 slumped by 5.0 percent to a low of $45.29 a barrel on Thursday, the lowest since November, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to curb production by 1.8 million barrels per day for six months from Jan. 1.

However, Friday saw a 1.5 percent bounce helped by assurances by Saudi Arabia that Russia is ready to join OPEC in extending supply cuts to reduce a persistent

Gold prices edged up in Asia on Tuesday in light trade with investors cautious ahead of a widely expected Fed rate hike in June and prospects for a stronger dollar.

Gold for June delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.14% to $1,228.78 a troy ounce.

Overnight, gold prices traded flat on Monday, as investors ditched safe-haven assets after Emmanuel Macron sealed a landslide victory over Marine Le Pen in the runoff vote on Sunday.

Gold futures struggled to hold onto gains, as demand for safe-haven assets eased, after centrist Emmanuel Macron won the race to the French presidency,

Lipper data released during the overnight trade showed US funds continued to move out of domestic markets and into the European and emerging markets during the week ended May 3.

Reuters report says, “Investors pulled $6.6 billion from US-based stock funds that invest at home during the week ended May 3, marking their fourth week of outflows in the last five. By contrast, US-based stock funds primarily invested abroad attracted $3 billion in their seventh straight week drawing in new money.”

The increased funds flow into the European markets explains the strength in the EUR seen over the past two weeks.

It also

High impact NFP news is coming. So let's discuss about highlight key points of today's NFP. 

Key Highlights:

Employment Change Expect +200k in April

Unemployment rate at 4.5%

Average hourly earnings to increase 0.3% m/m & 2.7% for the y/y

Reasons behind the upbeat forecasts:

Encouraging labor market fundamentals

Favorable swing in the weather

Partially offset by slowing job growth in the retail sector

Expect household employment will hold on to its sharp year-to-date gains

Expect firming wage growth with positive calendar effects

A combination of improving US economic data and confident sounding Fed steering a steady path to a June rate hike has provided the market with some food for thought over night.

On the US economic front, the ISM Non-manufacturing index rebounded from 55.2 to 57.5 in April, beating consensus at 55.8 while the ADP printed 177k for April slightly above consensus inspiring the dollar bulls in early trade

AS the expected, the Feds delivered a rather benign statement and while acknowledging growth had slowed, but they recognised this as transitory, and labour trends were expected to strengthen further in 2017.

Japanese Yen

USDJPY continues