Dick Costolo’s credibility is on the line.

Twitter Inc.’s chief executive officer failed to foresee a slowdown that forced the social-media company to miss analysts’ first-quarter revenue estimates and cut its 2015 sales forecast, and the stock slumped 18 percent.

While this isn’t the first time Twitter has fallen short on promised results, investors had been told that new features and services, as well as a management overhaul, were starting to pay off. Now, with results missing projections and executives warning of a “slow start” to April user additions, analysts are asking whether Twitter’s potential market is limited and about management’s ability to lure more users and advertisers.

“Management will again have to address credibility concerns,” Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note to investors. The quarter’s performance “raises the question of how much visibility into advertiser and consumer demand for its offerings Twitter really has,” he said.

Even after introducing new products and features to attract more people, growth in the number of monthly active members decelerated as the number of users rose 18 percent to 302 million in the latest quarter, compared with 20 percent in the prior period, Twitter said in a statement Tuesday.

Twitter fell $9.39 to $42.27 at the close in New York. The stock traded at the equivalent of $41.90 as of 8:35 a.m. in Frankfurt.

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Apple sold 61.2m iPhones in first three months of 2015, reporting revenues of $58bn as strong sales from China propelled the tech company to another record quarter.

The Californian tech giant was aided by strong sales of the new iPhone 6 and the larger iPhone 6 Plus in China during February’s Chinese New Year. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected Apple to sell 58.1m iPhones and for the company to report revenues of $56bn. The number far exceeded the 43.7m iPhones that Apple sold in the same period a year ago.

Revenue from China rose 71% to $16.82bn. That compares with $21.3bn in the Americas region, which was up 19%. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has previously predicted that China will become Apple’s largest market.

“We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever,” said Cook, announcing the company’s latest quarterly results after US stock markets had closed. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.”

On a call with analysts Cook said the company had an “incredible quarter” in China driven in large part by iPhone sales. Sales of Macs rose 31% in China. Cook said the company had benefitted from an expansion its physical retail and online presence in the country.

“I’ve never seen as many people coming into the middle class as I have in China and that is where the bulk of our sales are going,” he said.

With a net operating profit of $13.6bn, a 33% increase, the only fly in the ointment is the continued decline of iPad sales, off year-over-year for the second quarter running as smartphones with larger screens – including the 6 Plus – become more widely adopted.

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Android Lollipop 5.0 was supposed to change everything. It was supposed to inspire a revolution, a better—and better looking—Android. Instead it was a little disappointing, starting with a slow rollout, and followed by a motley parade of bugs.

At least now there's Android 5.1, and it’s so much better—at least, according to the lucky few users who have it on their devices. Google fixed a ton of bugs, and it also pushed through a few new helpful features that should have been bundled with Lollipop from the start. Here are five best new features of Lollipop 5.1.

Better WiFi and Bluetooth controls

When Lollipop first arrived on the scene, the Quick Settings in the Notifications shade were limited. You had to tap to navigate away to the Settings panel to get anything done, even if you simply wanted to switch Wi-Fi networks.

But with Android 5.1, you can now choose a wireless network or Bluetooth profile right from within the drop-down panel. All you have to do is tap an arrow to expand the listing.

Better Sound profiles

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve overslept because of Lollipop’s ridiculously limited sound profiles. Android 5.1 now lets you set your phone to silent—or the "None" setting—until your next alarm, so you don’t have to worry about missing a meeting the next morning. The only caveat is that the alarm has to be set for no more than 12 hours ahead of time, otherwise Lollipop won’t offer the option.

Better device protection

Phone theft is still a rampant issue, so Android 5.1 has a few new device protection features. The most powerful of the bunch prevents a thief from factory-resetting the phone without the password for the Google profile used previously on the device.

Note that this feature is available only on the Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and new Android 5.1 devices.

Notifications can be flicked away

Lollipop’s little drop-down Notifications are nice at times, but the options to dismiss them were limiting. You could either wait until it disappeared, tap on it to launch the app, or swipe it away and dismiss it entirely. Now you can flick it up to shoo the notification back to the Notification drawer without dismissing it entirely. It’s a minor touch, but it makes managing your notifications much easier.

No more crappy Wi-Fi connections

This is our favorite new feature of Android 5.1: if your device connects to a Wi-Fi network with poor or no Internet access, it'll remember that and never connect to it again. This is great if you’re traveling or you’re trying to leech off of free Wi-Fi connections.

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The economic costs of Nepal's devastating earthquake, which has claimed the lives of at least 3,200 people so far and injured thousands more, could exceed $5 billion, equivalent to 20 percent of the impoverished nation's gross domestic product (GDP), says IHS.

"With the death toll and total casualty estimates from the Nepal earthquake rising rapidly, the economic impact on the nation is severe," said Rajiv Biswas, chief economist, Asia-Pacific at IHS wrote in a note.

"The total long-term cost of reconstruction in Nepal using appropriate building standards for regions vulnerable to severe earthquakes could exceed $5 billion," he said.

A powerful earthquake measuring 7.8-magnitude struck an area between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara, around midday on Saturday, collapsing buildings and homes, toppling centuries-old cultural monuments, severely cracking roads and damaging communications infrastructure.

"The standard of housing construction in Nepal is extremely low, which is why the damage to buildings has been extremely severe," Biswas noted.

As a poverty-stricken nation, Nepal's capacity to fund disaster relief and long-term reconstruction efforts is extremely limited, said Biswas.

Nepal's per capita GDP stood at $694 in 2013, according to the World Bank, compared with $1,497 in neighboring India and $ 6,807 in China.

"A coordinated international disaster relief and long-term reconstruction program will need to be funded by bilateral assistance from donor nations and development financing agencies under the coordinated management of multilateral institutions such as the United Nations," he said.

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To become the elite top percent of the wealthiest people in the world you need correct timing to be profitable. In the Real Estate Business we all heard the same phrase over and over again “ Location, Location, Location”, the same applies in the trading world; “Timing, Timing, Timing” Timing is everything.

Unfortunately the enormous catastrophe of the earthquake that hit Nepal India and Mount Everest, this what influence the market and what provide people in the trading world with a great wealth.

As you can see CNBC Covers the financial overview of this disaster:

The Next crucial timing is announcements made by companies like Apple:

Also very important timing is Financial Announcements as you can find them on our ECONOMIC CALENDAR:

In Conclusion Timing is everything in Trading World

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Celebrations of the collapse of Comcast's CMCSA +0.8% $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable TWC -0.59% may prove short-lived. Instead of a cable sector with lower debt loads and more cash available to bear the brunt of falling subscription prices or added capital investment, U.S. consumers are now likely to get their service from increasingly leveraged providers who may not have the financial wherewithal to handle the industry’s continued upheaval and its chronic spending needs.

Conventional wisdom since Comcast launched its merger effort for Time Warner Cable in early 2014 was that the nation’s largest cable provider was seeking to use consolidation as a means to throttle the broadband speeds of choice-constrained users, jack up prices, and strong arm content providers at the negotiating table. That narrative carried the day and it’s no surprise that Comcast is now toying with abandoning its merger completely, amid objections from the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice, according to a report from Bloomberg.

However, the consolidation of the cable sector is also as much a financial story as it is one about industry organization and competitive behavior.

Those in fear of a cable monopoly or oligopoly will claim victory when and if Comcast formally abandons its Time Warner Cable bid in the face of un-winnable regulatory hurdles. But, they’ll then have to hope service and pricing improves at a time when the finances of the cable industry are becoming far more stretched.

That’s not a sure bet, especially in an era of cord cutting and spiraling content costs, particularly in sports programming.

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Teva Pharmaceutical Industries made an unsolicited offer to buy Mylan for about $40.1 billion, in the drug industry's largest takeover attempt this year.

Teva, the world's biggest maker of generic medicines, offered $82 a share in cash and stock, according to a statement. That's about 23 percent above Mylan's closing price April 16, the day before Bloomberg News reported Teva was considering a bid. Mylan, which says it makes about one of every 11 drugs prescribed to Americans, has said it wants to stay independent and that a combination with Teva would face antitrust hurdles.

The deal would create a generics powerhouse with more than $27 billion in revenue and re-establish Teva as the unchallenged giant in the industry. The Israeli company has lost market share to Indian manufacturers such as Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Chief Executive Officer Erez Vigodman has pledged to look for deals as Teva's best-selling product, a branded treatment for multiple sclerosis called Copaxone, faces potential competition from generics.

"The attraction for Teva is that this deal would immediately allow them to grow and reduce their exposure to the impending drop in Copaxone sales," said Sam Fazeli, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in London. "We still would have to consider the ramifications of antitrust regulation."

Buying Mylan would restart Teva's strategy of acquiring other generic-drug makers. The company had slowed acquisitions in that area in recent years, favoring deals for branded-drug companies such as the $3.5 billion purchase, announced last month, of Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc. That deal, the largest since Vigodman became CEO in February 2014, will give Teva medications that curb tics and other movement disorders.

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It took 156 tries, but the World Series of Poker Circuit has found its first female main event champion after Michelle Chin won the Horseshoe Council Bluffs $1,675 Main Event to the tune of $88,126.

After the event, she was elated, telling WSOP officials, "It feels really great. This is probably at most the 10th tournament I've ever played in my life. It's just awesome to make history."

Chin, a resident of Wichita, Kansas, made history when she topped the 235-entry field and took home the lion's share of the $352,500 prize pool. The road to victory included a heads-up battle with Mike Lang and another tough obstacle in the way in the form of Harvey's Lake Tahoe Main Event champion Jesse Wilke.

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Staff attorneys at the Justice Department's antitrust division are nearing a recommendation to block the proposed $45 billion merger of Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc , Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for Time Warner Cable questioned the report, saying the company had been working productively with both the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission.

"We've had no indication from the DoJ that this is true," the spokesman said.

Bloomberg said that Justice Department attorneys investigating the deal are citing concerns for consumers as they lean against it. Their review could be handed in as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The final decision would be made by senior officials.

Time Warner Cable shares closed down 5.4 percent at $149.61 on the New York Stock Exchange while Comcast shares ended down 2.1 percent at $58.42 on Nasdaq.

On Friday, a coalition of companies, associations and public interest groups sent a letter to FCC Chair Tom Wheeler opposing the merger.

"The combined company would, among other things: control over half of the high-speed residential broadband connections in the United States; dominate pay-TV across the nation; combine even stronger distribution muscle with NBC-Universal's "must-have" video programming; and control critical advertising and set-topbox inputs," the letter stated.

"... the Commission should reject this merger because it would result in too much power in the hands of one company."

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Bloomberg LP’s data terminals experienced failures on Friday that appeared to stretch from Hong Kong to London.

The terminals, known as Bloomberg Professional, are the company’s signature product, connecting trading floors with its chat function and providing market data and news.

Bankers and traders in Europe and Asia said that the terminals went down Friday morning in Europe, about an hour before the end of the Asian trading day. Some banks were reporting that their terminals appeared to be coming back online in London by midmorning on Friday.

The company, in a statement on its website around noon in Europe, said, “We are currently restoring service to those customers who were affected by today’s network issue and are investigating the cause.”

CNBC.com reported that a Bloomberg representative said that the terminals were unavailable worldwide.

The terminals are used by more than 315,000 financial professionals around the world, according to Bloomberg, and they provide a vast majority of the company’s revenue. Last year, Michael R. Bloomberg returned to the company he founded after serving three terms as the mayor of New York City.

Many larger banks and financial companies have a variety of backup systems as well as alternative data suppliers, such as products from Thomson Reuters, in place to avoid a major disruption.

One sales trader, based in Geneva, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because his company did not authorize him to give interviews, said the issues there started around 9 a.m.

The trader’s company has a few dozen Bloomberg terminals and uses them mainly for buying and selling exchange-traded funds and credit and for research. None of the firm’s terminals were able to connect for at least 90 minutes.

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There is no doubt that HBO poses the biggest threat to Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) dominance of the streaming business even as CEO, Reed Hastings affirms they are not substitutes for each other. The streaming giant might have posted strong results for the first quarter but with the emergence of more competition in the space, there is no room to get too complacent.

The CEO might be justified on his remarks based on the fact that both offer differing content at different price points. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) holds the upper hand in terms of pricing at the moment as it offers its services at $7. 99 a month compared to HBO’s $14.99 package. However, content on offer could be a big bargaining tool in HBO gaining substantial market share in the space.

HBO’s threat will always be a niggling concern for investors who have seen the stock sink in valuation as a result of negative sentiments in the industry. Internally, Netflix might have acknowledged the potential threat that HBO possess having embarked on a massive international expansion drive that will be used to offset any weakness achieved in the US.

Adding a record 4.9 million subscribers in the first quarter has somehow offset some of the pressure the streaming giant has faced in the recent past. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) service in the U.S grew in popularity as a result of catering to cord cutters but going forward that won’t be a point of focus as HBO is also catering to the same people.

It may be too early for Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) to shrug HBO threat in the streaming space as the world may have room for both taking into considering the disparity in the type of content that people like. The streaming giant may be doing great, but it is not the time to get too complacent.

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The Chinese e-commerce giant will transfer the pharmacy business on its Tmall marketplace platform to Hong Kong-traded Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd. 0241, +65.19% in exchange for shares and convertible debt that would bring its stake in Alibaba Health to nearly 55% when fully converted.

According to Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Group chief operating officer, the integration of the online pharmacy business into Alibaba Health will place the company in a position to be able to execute a greater healthcare e-commerce strategy, such as entering the online prescription drugs market.

“China has not yet issued license to dispense prescription drugs online, but then you can actually see them going down that route, ” said Alexander Ng, a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

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Finnish telecommunications-equipment maker Nokia Corp. is in advanced talks to buy French rival Alcatel-Lucent SA, the companies said Tuesday, a deal that would create a new global networking behemoth to rival Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei Technologies.

The deal currently under consideration is a “full combination” that would entail Nokia making a public offer for Alcatel-Lucent stock, the companies said. The deal could still fall apart, they added.

It isn’t clear if the parties have agreed on a valuation. Alcatel-Lucent’s market capitalization stands at roughly €11 billion ($11.63 billion), while Nokia’s market capitalization is about €28 billion.

In response to the statement, Alcatel-Lucent’s shares rose 13% to €4.38 in morning trading in Paris, while Nokia shares fell 7.3% to €7.205.

A purchase of Alcatel-Lucent by Nokia could face a tricky political dance in France. French officials have promoted the idea of creating pan-European giants to compete globally, in the model of Franco-German aerospace firm Airbus. But Alcatel-Lucent is also a major employer and symbolic of French industry.

One French government official said that any deal involving Alcatel-Lucent would likely have to be structured to keep a significant French influence in the new company for the deal to pass muster in Paris.

A spokeswoman for Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron declined to comment.

The timing of any deal remains unclear, but the two companies will face shareholders in the next few weeks. Nokia holds its annual shareholder meeting on May 5, while Alcatel-Lucent is scheduled to hold its meeting on May 26.

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China looks set to report its worst quarterly growth since the financial crisis, according to a CNNMoney survey of economists.

Gross domestic product is forecast to have expanded by 7 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period last year, according to the survey's median estimate.

That's quite a drop from the final quarter of 2014, when economic growth came in at 7.3 percent. Looking ahead, economists expect to see 6.8 percent annual GDP growth for this year, and even slower expansion at 6.5 percent in 2016.

The strength of China's economy is often difficult to judge at the beginning of the year because of the Lunar New Year holiday. But recent data have been so disappointing that experts are bracing for the worst.

Although survey estimates remain in line with the government's target of 7 percent, economists expect Beijing to take stimulus action if the economy slows much further, according to the survey. One of the biggest risks facing the Chinese economy continues to be a waning property sector.

"While we do not expect a dramatic slowdown, we think downward pressures on growth stemming from the weakness in real estate will remain in the coming months," wrote Louis Kuijs of RBS in a research note. "Against this backdrop, we think more macroeconomic easing steps will follow in the coming months to ensure that GDP growth will not fall too much below the target of 7 percent in 2015."

So far this year, the government has already tried to shore up the real estate sector, putting in place measures to boost property sales and battle slowing construction. But UBS economists Harrison Hsu and Wang Tao said the measures won't be enough to reverse the overall slowdown.

Other risks continue to loom, including capital outflow and massive local government debt.

Overall, analysts expect Beijing to consider interest rate cuts, a lower reserve requirement ratio, and further monetary easing to support the economy.

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Social games company Zynga has a new boss, but he looks strikingly similar to the old boss. That’s because he is the old boss: the company’s founder Mark Pincus.

Pincus stepped down as chief executive of the company behind FarmVille and Words with Friends in July 2013, hiring former Xbox executive Don Mattrick to replace him.

Although he remained at the company, Pincus withdrew from all operational duties in April 2014, saying at the time that “ultimately a ship is better with one captain putting a hand on the wheel”.

One year on, the captaincy is changing hands again. “Don is departing the company and I am returning to Zynga as CEO effective immediately,” wrote Pincus in an email to staff.

“I want to thank Don for his incredible efforts and leadership. He has laid groundwork that will benefit our players and company into the future.”

Under Pincus’ original tenure as chief executive, Zynga rose to become the dominant publisher of social games on Facebook, but struggled to make the most of its huge audience when casual gaming began to boom on mobile devices. Mattrick was brought in to change that.

While he has had some successes – in his email, Pincus cited the fact that 60% of Zynga’s “bookings” (money spent within its games) now happens on mobile, while its NaturalMotion subsidiary’s games have been installed more than 160m times – the company remains some way behind mobile rivals such as King, Supercell and GungHo Online.

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Saudi Arabia raised its crude output to 10.3 million barrels a day in March, its oil minister Ali al-Naimi said, signaling an unexpected strong demand from its customers.

Mr. Naimi did not give a reason for the increase in output, according to the official Saudi News Agency.

The Kingdom's previous record peak was 10.2 million barrels a day in August 2013. It told the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it produced 9.64 million barrels a day in February.

Mr. Naimi said that the kingdom's production will continue at around 10 million barrels a day, signaling that his country is determined to ride out the price slide without making any output cut.

"In terms of petroleum, I expect that prices will improve in the near future, that the Kingdom's production will continue at approximately 10 million barrels per day," Mr. Naimi said in a speech at an energy event in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia is willing to participate in restoring market stability and steering prices back up, but it can only do so with participation from major oil-producing countries inside and outside OPEC, he said.

"The burden cannot be borne by Saudi Arabia, the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Countries], or OPEC countries, alone," he said.

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Less than two months after YouTube rolled out a new standalone app aimed squarely at kids, the Google-owned video platform is now facing the wrath of consumer- and children’s advocacy groups in the U.S.

The groups, which include the Center for Digital Democracy, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Children Now, and the Consumer Federation of America, are filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today, arguing that the ad-supported videos aren’t being held to the same stringent standards as adverts on T.V.

With the launch of YouTube Kids on iOS and Android back in February, Google promised a highly-filtered video-streaming experience for children and parents — no adult-centric content, and nothing that could be inappropriate for young eyes. However, many early critics were quick to point out that the very fact there are ads and product-placements carefully intertwined with entertainment and educational content made the app not appropriate for children, as they often can’t differentiate between ads, and entertainment/education.

Much of Google’s business is built on advertising, so the fact that it does include adverts within the YouTube Kids app isn’t that surprising in itself. Plus, the fact that there isn’t a blanket ban of targeting adverts at kids, may initially suggest that the groups’ complaint may fall at the first hurdle. However, the specific focus is expected to be on the regulation disparity between T.V. and Internet, with the former adhering to much stricter guidelines.

Moreover, specific reference will be given to key ads it argues goes against Google’s own policies. In the Internet giant’s YouTube Kids advertising policy, it bans a slew of categories, including politics, religion, dating or relationship, and — importantly — food and beverage. It say specifically: “Products related to consumable food and drinks are prohibited, regardless of nutrition content.”

Yet, YouTube Kids has videos from McDonald’s, including a 7-minute broadcast “dispelling myths about the contents of Chicken McNuggets,” according to the Washington Post. It also markets its popular Big Mac burger, saying “You can’t get juiciness like this from soy or quinoa.”

“They are mixing entertainment and advertising in ways that have already been ruled unfair and deceptive to children,” explains Dale Kunkel, professor of communication at the University of Arizona, in the New York Times. “It is just that the precedent is in television, not digital media.”

In short, the crux of the complaint is how Google mixes advertising in with its entertainment and education programs, and YouTube should be held to the same standards as T.V.

If the complaints will become something serious, the stock may suffer as a result.

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Crude-oil futures rebounded on Monday as investors assessed the impact of last week’s disappointing U.S. jobs data and Iranian nuclear deal.

The greenback had weakened after Friday’s weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data as investors delayed expectations of an increase in the U.S. Federal Reserve’s key interest rate. A stronger dollar on the back of higher rate expectations has weighed on commodities prices in recent weeks.

Oil markets were closed on Friday, but oil prices had fallen sharply in electronic trade after reports of a framework Iranian nuclear deal raised concerns of more Iranian crude supply.

However, oil prices have since recovered with analysts largely estimating that Iranian crude exports could take several months to ramp up significantly.

“Even if a final deal is reached, we do not expect any physical market impact before 2016,” Adam Longson, head of oil research at Morgan Stanley, said in a report.

He said if sanctions are lifted, Iran’s oil exports may increase by only 500,000-700,000 barrels a day given the underinvestment in Iran’s oil sector, while around 30 million barrels of floating storage could also come to market.

Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia raised its official crude oil selling price for Asian buyers for May lifting on the back of strong refining margins in the region and a strong Dubai crude price benchmark, Singapore-based traders said.

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03

Apr

As in every first Friday of the month, today there's the NFP announcement.

What is it? It checks the change in the number of employed people during the previous month, excluding the farming industry.

Job creation is an important leading indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for a majority of overall economic activity.

When? May 8th at 8:30am Eastern Time.

Trading Tip: If the actual number is higher than the forecast, you can expect the USD to rise.

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