Non-Farm Payrolls ahead In a move that surprised no one, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to keep interest rates unchanged yesterday. The EURUSD weakened a touch on the news. However, it rallied as Mario Draghi began his subsequent press conference. The ECB President deigned to keep the size of the central bank’s asset purchase programme under wraps. However, he said it would continue for at least two years in an effort to boost economic growth and fight off deflationary pressures. His prognosis was seen as somewhat gloomy. At the same time many investors were disappointed that the ECB President made no mention of additional stimulus measures – namely full-blown quantitative easing, or “money-printing” as it’s known technically. The US dollar lost ground against most of the majors and the euro bounced sharply as recent sellers covered their positions. We’ve seen a modest reversal overnight as the EURUSD has fallen again. The Japanese yen has also given back recent gains as investor risk appetite returns. This afternoon sees the latest release of US Non-Farm Payrolls. The consensus expectation is for a rise of 216,000 in September. If so, this would represent a significant increase on the prior reading of 142,000. However, last month’s figure came in well below the 226,000 predicted. So a bounce-back to 216,000 shouldn’t be treated with too much jubilation, although there could be reason to cheer if the August number is revised significantly higher. Overall, stronger payroll data should help to keep the US dollar on its upward path and further undermine the euro. The Unemployment Rate is expected to remain unchanged at 6.1%. Today’s other notable economic data releases include Services PMIs from Spain, Italy, the Euro zone and the UK. We also have Euro zone Retail Sales and the Canadian Trade Balance. From the US we have Final Services PMI and the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 07:13:17 +0000
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