US markets retreated slightly overnight following the latest reading on the American jobs market, which revealed private employers reduced their pace of hiring last month.

The ADP non-farm payrolls report showed US companies added 175,000 jobs in January, less than the 191,000 expected by economists.

The disappointing jobs read was offset somewhat by the latest ISM non-manufacturing PMI, which revealed services activity expanded at a faster-than-expected pace in January.

All-in-all, it was a lacklustre night on Wall Street, with the three major US indices recovering most of their earlier losses to finish just below their opening levels.

The Dow slipped five points to 15440, the S&P500 shed three points (-0.2%) to 1752 and the Nasdaq dropped 20 points (-0.5%) to 4012.

Most commodities strengthened, with gold benefiting from safe-haven flows following the latest disappointing reading on the US jobs market. Bullion rose 0.5% to US$1257 an ounce.

In the currency space, the greenback weakened against some of its bigger rivals like the yen and euro, but rose against most emerging market currencies, in a sign of continuing instability within that space.

In economic news, Australian retail sales, trade balance data the NAB Quarterly Business Confidence Survey are all due for release at 11:30am, AEDT.

Morning Market Update: Lucklustre night is a post from: Australian Stock Report Market Pulse Blog