Hello,
The first half of last week was dominated by US economic data, with the second half delivering interest rate decisions from three of the world’s largest economies. There were also fresh developments in the AI race, with reports that Amazon is weighing a $10 billion investment in OpenAI that would include a commitment for ChatGPT to run on Amazon chips. Nvidia initially fell nearly 4% on the news but recovered to finish up over 3%.
Tuesday brought a double dose of US non-farm payrolls, with November and the delayed October figures landing together. Payrolls fell 105,000 in October as 162,000 federal employees left their roles during the shutdown. November added 64,000 jobs, above the 50,000 expected. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% from 4.4% in September.
The first US CPI report since before the shutdown showed prices rising at a 2.7% annualised rate in November, down from 3% in September and well below the 3.1% anticipated. The European Central Bank held its main rate at 2% as expected, while the Bank of England cut its policy rate from 4% to 3.75% after inflation unexpectedly fell from 3.6% to 3.2%.
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