©Reuters.
By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com – It’s payroll day and analysts are expecting the slowest increase in nonfarm payrolls in almost two years — although that says as much about a shrinking pool of available labor as it does about demand for labor. The REIT sector is on guard after Thursday’s shock news that Blackstone rejected more than half of investor redemption requests in its flagship private real estate funds last month. Stocks are treading water ahead of the jobs report but the dollar weakens as risk sentiment continues to improve. There is another common-or-garden strain hack in the DeFi world. And the European Union will agree on a global price cap for Russian oil two days before an import ban into the EU comes into effect. Here’s what you need to know about the financial markets on Friday December 2nd.
1. The job report is said to show the smallest salary increase since the beginning of 2021
The US is due to release its official report at 08:30 ET (13:30 GMT), the culmination of a week of numbers that have done little to change the perception that the market is only gradually cooling and not a hindrance to further increases of the Federal Reserve represents .
Analysts expect the economy to have added just 200,000 nonfarm payrolls by mid-November. While that would be the smallest gain since January 2021, it would only reflect the reality that the US is running out of available labor at just 3.7%. Of more interest will be developments in , which edged higher last month after showing signs of a slowdown in the previous two months.
The Chicago Fed President will say his two cents at 10:15 ET.
2. Trouble in REITland?
All eyes will later be on the REIT sector after Blackstone (NYSE:) shocked the market on Thursday with news that it refused to meet more than half of November’s redemption requests from investors at its flagship private real estate fund .
The $125 billion Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust has been particularly hit by wealthy Asian investors trying to raise cash at the end of a difficult year. Real estate funds have been one of the sectors hit hardest by the rise in global interest rates this year due to their own widespread use of leverage.
Additionally, as a private fund, BREIT has not had to actively market its investments to market value as comparable publicly traded funds. This has created a large valuation gap and a clear arbitrage opportunity.
Therefore, while concerns about the near-term performance of REITs remain, initial fears of a systemic problem may be overdone. Blackstone shares fell another 2.3% premarket after falling over 7% on Thursday.
3. Stocks flat ahead of jobs report; Marvell, Zscaler fight
US stock markets are treading water ahead of the later payroll data release, despite a continued improvement in risk sentiment indicated by a further decline in the dollar.
By 06:30 ET they were down 56 points, or 0.2%, while down 0.1% and 0.2%. All three cash indices have held onto most of the gains they made in response to the Fed Chair’s speech earlier in the week.
Stocks to look for later include Zscaler (NASDAQ:), which reversed all of Thursday’s premarket gains after a disappointing outlook late Thursday, and chipmaker Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:), which also missed both his and his guidance for the third quarter results.
4. Ankr says limited damage from hack
It could be worse. The Ankr protocol, which hosts around $123 million worth of tokens, said it estimates the damage from a security breach at just $5 million and will work to compensate affected liquidity providers.
Hackers had previously targeted the Ankr-issued aBNBc token, essentially a derivative of the native token of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance. Binance had temporarily suspended payouts but said its own customers’ funds were unaffected.
According to blockchain specialist Chainalysis, more than $3 billion has been hacked from the crypto sector so far in 2022. While that’s probably a record, it pales in comparison to the wealth destroyed by the collapse of the Terra/Luna network and FTX.
5. The EU is approaching the Russian oil price ceiling
The European Union struck a deal to cap the price of Russian oil exports at $60 a barrel, though the formal deal was delayed by Polish attempts to tie it to a new package of anti-Russian sanctions.
The price cap would prevent third parties from obtaining essential services such as shipping and insurance from European companies if the buyer pays a higher price for shipments of Russian crude. An EU ban on Russian oil imports into the bloc comes into effect on Monday.
Widely derided as impracticable, the plan has overshadowed very real progress in forcing Russia to heavily discount its oil sales in world markets. Uncertainty about the impact is likely to prevent the OPEC+ bloc – which includes Russia – from changing its production quotas when it meets virtually on Sunday.
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