6.2 With the upcoming employment statistics for the weekend, activity is thin and the trading volume is also notably low.

This article is not intended to indicate or recommend buying or selling timing.

Please make your own investment decisions.

Yesterday, the early month showed a wait-and-see mood due to low trading volume.

Following the morning rally, the Nikkei average hit a peak at the open and then fell sharply.

Although the downside was supported, there was no more buying, perhaps due to a lack of catalysts.

The softness of the dollar/yen also weighed on sentiment.

The ISM Manufacturing PMI released yesterday came in at 61.2, higher than the forecast 60.9, but the employment index fell from 55 to 50, indicating a deterioration in the employment situation month over month, which led to dollar selling.

After the London close, with stock prices remaining soft, both the dollar and the yen have been bought.

From these results, the weak supply situation and weak employment conditions are evident, and although orders are strong, the economy is improving only to a point, with bottlenecks keeping a lid on further gains, slightly worse than last month.

In reality, the employment report is dominated by non-manufacturing sectors, so the manufacturing PMI may not have a strong impact; however, employment prospects could change across all sectors, making the upside risk of the employment statistics seem limited.

We should watch the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI results on Wednesday (though they may be less correlated these days; the ADP employment report can also be a reference).

Below is today's analysis: GBP/JPY, USD/JPY, EUR/USD, AUD/USD, Nikkei 225, USD/CAD