Risk assets worldwide rose last week, buoyed by increased optimism regarding the economic recovery from the pandemic shutdown.

The euro has surged higher in the past few days, rallying to a more than two month high. Not only has the news of fiscal support raised optimism regarding a Euro Area recovery, but we are continuing to see a dichotomy in both the spread of the virus and economic resilience between the US and Europe.

The EU laid out a costly rescue plan for the economies worst affected by the COVID-19 crisis with investors deeming it an encouraging sign of unity. Plus, Trump's "very interesting" action against China and what US economic data to keep an eye out for.

The general rebound in the key PMIs of business activity and the continued easing of lockdown measures, reassured markets and lifted risk assets worldwide last week, led by equities. Plus, a new risk factor emerged as US-China tensions took a turn for the worse.

Many businesses around the world have encountered challenges with making payroll and mass payments due to the Coronavirus crisis. Every other week, we will take a look a country exploring how payments have been impacted and what we might expect to see going forward. This week, our attention turns to Nigeria.

COVID-19 global containment measures have had huge implications on the labour market. Here we review how the job markets of the main economies have performed to date and take a look at what impact these contrasting labour market performances could have on the foreign exchange market.

After having spent much of the week on the back foot, the US dollar roared back against its major peers during Asian trading on Friday.

Euro Area PMI data provided reason to be slightly more optimistic regarding the outlook for Europe with UK PMI data similarly beat expectations.