The Traderszone Network

U.S. private employers maintained a steady pace of hiring in August despite recent global financial market turmoil, suggesting that labor market momentum likely remains strong enough for the Federal Reserve to consider an interest rate hike this year. The ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday showed private payrolls increased 190,000 last month. While that was below economists’ expectations for a gain of 201,000 jobs, it was a step-up from the 177,000 positions created in July and in line with the trend for the first seven months of this year.

Japan’s Toshiba Corp is likely to post a net loss of about 10 billion yen ($83 million) when it reports its financial 2014/15 earnings as early as this week, the Yomiuri daily reported, amid a probe into improper accounting at the company. Toshiba was already expected to report a loss after an independent probe found it had overstated its profits by $1.2 billion over several years, but the figure cited by Yomiuri was the first indication of how deep that loss would be. There was no immediate comment from Toshiba.

Wal-Mart will start hiring for the stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and California, and will encourage previous employees and those that transferred to other stores to apply, company spokesman Lorenzo Lopez said on Wednesday. Wal-Mart announced the store closures in April to fix plumbing and other repairs. The move impacted some 2,200 workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which backs campaigns pushing the retailer to improve pay and benefits for store employees, filed a complaint to the NLRB that is still pending.

Oil fell on Thursday on a surprise build in U.S. inventory levels and a firm dollar, but a recovery in Asian shares after Wall Street posted a near 2 percent gain checked losses. Asian investors were focused on the increase in U.S. crude inventories last week, but sentiment had been supported by the rally on Wall Street, said Jonathan Barratt, chief investment officer at Sydney’s Ayers Alliance. U.S. crude fell 19 cents to $46.06 a barrel, off the day’s low of $45.65, after settling up 84 cents on Wednesday.

Hedge fund mogul William Ackman, one of last year’s best performers, joined a string of high profile managers in reporting deep losses for August as global markets tumbled amid fears over slower growth in China. Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, which makes concentrated bets on a small number of stocks, told clients on Wednesday that its Pershing Square LP fund fell 7.7 percent last month, leaving it flat on the year with a 0.06 percent gain.

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Japan has been pouring billions of dollars in clean-energy investment after introducing a feed-in tariff (FIT) program in 2012, aiming to help the world’s third-biggest economy shift away from its reliance on nuclear power after the March 2011 Fukushima disaster. Asahi’s survey showed that the ratio of solar power at peak hours was as low as Hokuriku Electric Power’s 5.9 percent and as high as Kyushu Electric Power’s 24.6 percent, depending on access to ample land with favorable sunlight conditions.

Forex options due to expire today
EURUSD
– 1.1000 (940m)
– 1.1100 (875m) , 1.1150
– 1.1200
– 1.1350
– 1.1400
USDJPY
– 119.25, 119.50
– 120.00, 120.45
GBPUSD