U.S. July inflation data will be the main highlight in the week ahead after last Friday’s much stronger-than-anticipated jobs report quashed hopes that the Federal Reserve may relent in its aggressive campaign to tame the highest inflation in decades.

- Investors will also get to hear from several Fed speakers, with policymakers under renewed pressure to deliver a third 75 basis point rate hike at their upcoming meeting in September.

- The U.S. economy added528,000 jobs last month, according to the report that smashed economists’ forecasts for an addition of just 250,000 posts — making the Federal Reserve’s already arduous task of curbing inflation even harder.

Equities:

- In Wall Street, US stocks had a choppy trading session on Friday after the July jobs report came in much better than expected, as investors assessed what a strong labor market would mean for the Fed’s rate-tightening campaign.

- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.07% to close at 32,765. Even with Friday’s gains, but on the weekly front, the index recorded a slight decrease of less than 0.25%.

- The S&P 500 also rose 0.16% to close at 4,145.19 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.85% on Friday, dropping to 13,192.4.

- However, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both ended the first week of August higher.

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Currency Market:

- The Dollar Index traded 0.1% lower at 106.435, edging back from Friday’s peak of 106.93, the strongest level since July 28.

- However, USD/JPY climbed 0.2% to 135.40, just off the 135.58 level seen earlier Monday, which was the highest level also since July 28.

- Elsewhere, EUR/USD edged lower to 1.0178. GBP/USD rose 0.1% to 1.2080, with sterling vulnerable to more selling after dropping as low as 1.2003 on Friday, a day after the Bank of England warned of the likelihood of a prolonged recession starting later this year.

- AUD/USD gained 0.4% to 0.6934, while USD/CNY edged higher to 6.7638 after China's exports rose 18.0% in July from a year earlier.

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Commodities: Gold

- Gold prices fell after strong US jobs data last week boosted the possibility that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates significantly, sending dollar and Treasury yields higher.

- The price of gold in spot transactions fell 0.1% to $1,771.74 an ounce after declining one percent in the previous session. US gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,788.20 an ounce.

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Commodities: Oil

- Oil prices bounced higher from multi-month lows as investors' appetite improved following data on U.S. jobs and Chinese exports data that eased recession concerns.

- Brent crude futures had risen 81 cents, or 0.9%, to $95.73 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $89.76 a barrel, up 75 cents, or 0.8%.
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