Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and the business world.
The main economic event of the day is the publication of US non-farm payroll data. Economists think that the US economy created 180,000 jobs in November, bringing unemployment down to 7.2%.
The expectation of these positive figures has put nervy market watchers back on stimulus watch, once again raising expectations that the Fed will start reining in its $85bn-a month stimulus programme.
But as Michael Hewson of CMC Markets points out improvements in November are not uncommon, as firms take on more workers around the holiday time.
Markets may well be premature in thinking that the Fed will act on a strong number in the knowledge that we could well see a drop off going into December and the New Year. If anything, given how strong payrolls numbers have been in previous years at in November, it would be a surprise if we did not get a strong jobs number.
The publication of the US data is likely to be the main economic event of the day, but plenty else is afoot. We could have some eurozone news, with Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem speaking at a conference today.
I’ll also be picking up further reaction to George Osborne’s autumn statement.
So stay tuned...
Updated
George Osborne has been on BBC Radio 4's Today programme talking about his autumn statement. The message was very familiar: the chancellor talked up "better economic news" and those revised forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
I am the first to stay that although the economic plan is working the job isn't done.
Asked about when the UK might return to "normal" interest rates of 4% or 5%, he didn't have any good news for savers, noting that Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, had set out his forward guidance policy.
One of the paradoxes of recovery and of an economic calamity is that the people who pay the price are those "who have done the right thing and saved", Osborne said.
Asked about his plan to charge capital gains tax on foreigners' UK properties, he did not have an answer about why this had taken so long.
He said that after talking to developers he was convinced that "a move like this would not to huge amounts of damage to investment in Britain".
You can read our full coverage and reaction to the autumn statement here.
Osborne: "It's not fair for the rest of the country to be paying their taxes if foreigners aren't paying theirs."http://t.co/c1nADApi8p— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) December 6, 2013
Updated
WTO close to trade deal
Could it really happen? After 12 years of talks, trade negotiators are sounding hopeful about reaching an elusive deal on global trade.
The World Trade Organisation's spokesman Keith Rockwell told journalists in Bali that prospects were promising: "we are very close."
The WTO's director-general Roberto Azevedo, sounded confident about the prospects for success, although he told delegates there was more work to do.
As Rockwell said:
[Azevedo] told members they were now very close to something that has eluded us for many years and that the decisions over the next few hours would have great significance beyond this day.
Quotes from Reuters
As the Guardian's economics editor Larry Elliott wrote earlier this week,the future of the WTO and the governance of the global economy is at stake.
The package on the table would have little real impact on the global economy. On the other hand, failure this week would be a disaster for the WTO, which might continue as the court where trade disputes are settled but would cease to exist as a forum for serious trade liberalisation talks...Free trade is seen as a racket dominated by a particular class interest. Unless that changes and the fruits are more equitably shared, the WTO will continue to stumble from crisis to crisis and globalisation will remain a dirty word.
