Oil prices fail to dampen tentative rebound

A volatile session for markets on Thursday saw the dollar rebound and equities recover some poise after key US jobs data failed to provide the catalyst for another sell-off. Investors had been braced for a difficult day after oil breached $146 a barrel and key stock markets lurched into official bear market territory. But the pivotal events of the session – the European Central Bank’s interest rate decision and the US non-farm payrolls numbers – did not produce the fallout some feared. Equities in the US and Europe were tentatively higher, the beleaguered dollar rebounded off its 10-week low against the euro, and oil prices retreated $1 from their intraday high. US employers cut 62,000 jobs last month, almost exactly the number analysts had predicted. The six successive months of falling jobs marks a ­worrying trend for the... [read full story]