Where Is the Dollar Headed? Watch the US Jobs Report
After the US Federal Reserve decision, the next major opportunity to see the US dollar (USD) move is coming from the US jobs report.
The jobs report is scheduled for Friday and should detail employment numbers in the US for the month of January. It will report on how many jobs were added to the country last month and give some indication of how healthy the US economy is. That’s vital for the US dollar and for those who are invested in it.
The recent Federal Reserve announcement on interest rates and whether or not there would be any cuts caused considerable movement for the instrument. USD dipped right before the announcement from anticipatory fear. Then, the dollar grew slightly stronger after the mostly neutral announcement that revealed there would be no immediate interest rate cuts. Even though the announcement was expected, the dollar still fluctuated in response.
What Is the Expectation for the Jobs Report?
Economists expect the January report to show that 177,000 jobs were added last month. This information comes from a survey carried out by FactSet, an independent data firm.
There is concern about a trend of massive layoffs, stemming from job cut announcements from Amazon, UPS, and Google. That would definitely hurt the US economy and lead to negative jobs reports in the near future. Joblessness is expected to be reported as slightly up from last month (3.8% over 3.7%) but still down from 4% for the second year in a row. If it stays under 4%, that will be the first time those kinds of numbers have been achieved since the 1960s.
The jobs report should also show that no recession is taking place right now- another indicator to help the US dollar and another talking point to be used during an election year.
The USD dollar is slightly up (0.17%) against the Japanese yen (JPY) today, in anticipation of a mildly positive jobs report. It is very slightly down in its pairing with the Euro (EUR), dropping just 0.0006% over the last 24 hours. Expect a positive jobs report to help USD on both fronts.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
See More
Sidebar rates
Add 3442
Related Posts
SaveAdd 3440
Join 350 000+ traders receiving Free Trading Signals
Alerts
Rates
Calendar
Signals