The US Currency Strengthened Despite Ambiguous Data on the Labor Market

Last week, the US dollar peaked this year against the basket of major currencies despite ambiguous data on the US labor market. The US dollar index (#DX) closed with a plus (+0.17%) on Friday. In April, the average hourly earnings growth slowed down from 0.2% to 0.1%. In the nonfarm sector of the country, 164,000 new jobs were created, which is below the forecasted level of 189,000. At the same time, the unemployment rate dropped from 4.1% to 3.9%. In the near future, the technical correction is not ruled out on the main currency pairs.

This week, meetings of the Central Banks of New Zealand and the UK, as well as reports on inflation and the producer price index in the US will be the key events. Financial market participants expect that regulators will leave key interest rates unchanged. Today, the negotiations on the renewal of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada and Mexico will be in the focus of attention.

At the moment, the “black gold” prices are consolidating after a sharp increase during the Friday’s trading session. Futures for the WTI crude oil are testing a mark of $70.40.

Market Indicators

On Friday, there were aggressive purchases in the US stock market: #SPY (+1.29%), #DIA (+1.43%), #QQQ (+1.90%).

At the moment, the 10year US government bonds yield is at the level of 2.942.95%.

Important economic reports are not expected to be published today. We recommend paying attention to the speeches of the FOMC representatives.

by JustMarkets, 2018.05.07