A daily look at the Markets from Joshua Raymond, Market Strategist, City Index.

Poor ADP employment figures sent ripples through equity markets in Europe today, causing the FTSE 100, DAX and CAC to lose ground and turn negative on the day.

ADP employment data showed that the private sector surprisingly lost 23,000 jobs in March, when a growth of 40,000 had been expected and this has caused a bit of a stir in today’s markets.

As soon as the ADP employment data came out, we saw a rush to sell equities which resulted in the FTSE, Dax and CAC all losing approximately 0.5%.

The reason why the markets have reacted so drastically to the ADP employment figures is that it sends out a clear warning message ahead of Fridays Non Farm Payrolls, which were expected to deliver a very positive reading.

Now many investors will have to re-evaluate what they had hoped for from the Non Farms data.

With European markets closed on Friday too, many traders are getting out of positions now in case we get a similar shock to today’s private sector employment figures, as this will inevitably play a strong hand in how European markets open next Tuesday after the long weekend.

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