Lagarde eyed for ECB, companies slash guidance, and London bankers on edge: This Week in Finance

Welcome to This Week in Finance, your weekly roundup of the conversations trending among financial professionals on LinkedIn. Click Subscribe above to be notified of each edition. This week:

Hiring rebounds in June

The U.S. added 224,000 jobs in June after a rocky May, helped by hiring pickups in health care, transportation, and warehousing. The official figures also showed the jobless rate moved up slightly to 3.7% as more Americans entered the workforce, while wages rose 3.1% from a year earlier — a bit slower than economists had expected. The monthly jobs report is the last major piece of data the Federal Reserve will consider before its July meeting as it contemplates an interest rate cut. ?? Here's what people are saying.

First woman nominated as ECB head

Christine Lagarde was nominated to be president of the European Central Bank. The IMF managing director won support from EU leaders to lead the eurozone's central bank after Mario Draghi’s eight-year term expires in October. Formal approval likely will come within months and would make Lagarde — dubbed the “rock star” of international finance — the first woman to hold the position and the first president without a background in central banking. The move also could trigger a complicated process to find a successor for the IMF. ?? Here's what people are saying.

U.S. economic expansion breaks record

At 121 months, the U.S. economic expansion became the longest in the nation’s history, pending confirmation from official growth figures. It’s been a gradual climb higher, with the economy growing on average 2.3% a year since June 2009. In that time, unemployment has fallen to nearly its lowest level in half a century, but the wealth gap has ballooned, with a recent Deutsche Bank analysis finding that the “typical American family is poorer than pre-crisis.” ?? Here's what people are saying.

Lowering the bar for earnings season

Companies are quickly slashing their earnings forecasts for the second quarter as businesses grapple with a stronger dollar, lower oil prices, higher input costs, and rising uncertainty over trade and global growth, according to Bloomberg. While estimates are normally revised lower ahead of the earnings season so companies can beat expectations, the speed of recent downgrades has been notable: Analysts have reduced forecasts at the fastest pace in nearly three years, and more than 80% of the S&P 500 companies changing their earnings forecasts have made them lower. ?? Here's what people are saying.

No summer of love for London bankers

London employees of Deutsche Bank were bracing for cuts this week amid reports that restructuring could see 20,000 jobs lost in the wake of a failed merger with rival Commerzbank. This as HSBC, Nomura, and Stifel execute thousands of job reductions in the capital. Research by EY found that London firms have so far committed to move at least 7,000 jobs out of the UK to prepare for Brexit, while business intelligence provider Coalition anticipates a further 10% reduction in investment bank headcount in the UK over the next two years. ?? Here's what people are saying.

—With Riva Gold, Alexander Besant, Capucine Yeomans, Orlando Crowcroft, and Natalie MacDonald.

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