Market update: After June's jobs report & Janet Yellen's speech (6 June 2016)

In a closely watched speech in Philadelphia, Yellen conceded that Friday's dismal job figures would keep the US central bank on hold – at least until the direction of the US economy becomes much clearer.

Her comments are in stark contrast to her position less than two weeks ago, when she opined that the strengthening US economy meant the Fed would likely hike interest rates in the "coming months".

The plans of Yellen and her fellow Fed policy-makers have been thrown into disarray by the latest US employment figures, which showed employers added a mere 38,000 jobs in May – about a quarter of the number that economists were expecting. Job growth over the last three months in the US has averaged about 116,000.