Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — U.S. job vacancies data, and the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Poll head Friday’s quiet Friday of economic data. Russia’s aggressive rhetoric on Poland and Ukraine keeps Europe at bay. Although stocks may edge up, inflation is still a concern. The COP26 will end as it began in a distinctly disappointing fashion. What you should know on Friday, November 12th in the financial markets.

1. JOLTS and inflation expectations are in focus

The U.S. labor market – and its ability to drive inflation – will be in focus again later, as the Labor Department releases its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

Analysts expect the number of vacancies to have fallen slightly in October to 10.30 million from 10.44 million in September, but that’s still not far off the all-time record of 11.10 million seen in August. It’s also nearly 3 million above its pre-pandemic peak in 2019.

Also, the University of Michigan releases their November consumer sentiment survey. The focus will be on the subindex of inflation expectations, which reached its highest level since 2008. The headlines surrounding actual inflation’s October 30 year high seem to suggest that it could be a positive surprise.

2. Russia taunts Europe with its sword

Russian saber-rattling grew louder than in previous years. This was due to the support of Belarus’s efforts to deflect new EU sanctions.  

U.S. diplomats are concerned that Russia might make another incursion in Ukraine, seven years after it invaded the country. It’s also conducting joint military exercises with Belarus near the town of Grodno in northwest Belarus, which borders on both Poland and Lithuania.

Meanwhile, the standoff between Polish border security guards and thousands of migrants deliberately delivered  to the border by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko continues. Lukashenko threatened Thursday to stop Russian gas supplies through the Yamal-Europe key pipeline. The Kremlin will not tolerate such a politicization of gas supplies. However, this move indirectly puts pressure on Europe to open Nord Stream 2 for exports.

The ruble, which is one of the most successful currencies this year, dropped against the dollar by 1% for the third day straight to a 5-week low.

3. Stocks will open higher, Chinese ecommerce giants are celebrating a Mixed Singles Day

U.S. stock exchanges are likely to open higher Friday with sentiment leading the way in the absence any major market-moving information.

At 6:15 AM ET (1115 GMT), the index was up 0.2% or 78 points. This is due to higher inflation fears and lower interest rates. In addition to a 0.1% increase in contract, the contract edged up 0.2%.

Beyond Meat (NASDAQ) is one stock that will likely be under scrutiny later. It has suffered a loss of nearly 20% against the backdrop of a worse outlook. However, it still trades at more than 10x forward sales. Chinese giants in e-commerce Alibaba (NYSE:) and JD.com (NASDAQ:) will also be in focus after mixed fortunes on their ‘singles day’ sales event. Gross merchandise value processed by Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace grew at less than 10% for the first time ever.

4. COP26 concludes with another win for fossil fuels

The world’s biggest hot air fest came to a characteristically underwhelming conclusing in Glasgow, Scotland, as negotiators at the COP26 conference watered down yet another pledge to move beyond fossil fuels and head off the risk of catastrophic climate change.

A draft final declaration from the summit softened language on phasing out coal power and removing subsidies for fossil fuel use – largely at the insistence of Arab countries, according to Reuters.

This adds to the failures made earlier in the week to create a global carbon market, enforce earlier promises to poorer countries to finance the transition to energy, and commit to an annual review of countries’ implementations.

Given the current short-term energy crisis in many countries, as well as the fact that Xi Jinping chose not to return home, he was unlikely to reach an agreement on long-term ideals for energy.

5. The stronger dollar makes oil prices fall

Overnight, prices dropped, leaving them only a little ahead of their gain line for the week. The stronger dollar also continued to make it difficult for buyers from other countries.

U.S. futures fell 1.7% to $80.20 per barrel at 6:30 AM ET. This suggests that they could dip below $80 this week. Futures fell 1.5% to $81.67 per barrel.

Baker Hughes’ rig count later will give fresh indications as to whether U.S. producers are accelerating production plans in response to the recent surge in prices, or whether they are continuing to prefer to repair balance sheets. The CFTC’s net positioning data will round off the week. Last week’s data showed that money managers were not excessively long of oil, by historical standards.