Forex news for US trading on October 1, 2015:

  • September 2015 US ISM manufacturing PMI 50.2 vs 50.6 exp
  • September 2015 US Markit manufacturing PMI final 53.1 vs 53.0 exp
  • US initial jobless claims 277k vs 270k exp
  • September Canadian 2015 RBC manufacturing PMI 48.6 vs 49.4 prior
  • September 2015 US Challenger layoffs 58,877 vs 41,186 prior
  • US Sept total vehicle sales 18.17m vs 17.81m in August
  • BOJ see little immediate need for adding more stimulus - Bloomberg
  • US construction spending 0.7% vs. 0.5% estimate
  • Fed's Williams: No one should be surprised when the Fed raises rates
  • French stats agency cuts growth forecast
  • Expect discussion on Fed hike at IMF meeting- German official
  • ECB's Weidmann: Central bank should follow steady course
  • SNB's Zurbruegg is convinced negative rates and intervention will weaken Franc
  • Atlanta Fed slashes US Q3 GDP forecast to +0.9%
  • Goldman Sachs and Barclays trim US Q3 growth estimates
  • World Bank's Kim says global growth will be slow
  • Fed's Lacker says rate rise is possible in October
  • Gold down $1 to $1114
  • WTI crude down 5-cents to $45.04
  • S&P 500 up 4 points to 1924
  • US 10-year yields flat at 2.04%
  • CAD leads, CHF lags

The FX market generally finished the day flat except for mild Canadian dollar strength and Swiss franc weakness. It's not unusual to see the market in an indecisive mood ahead of non-farm payrolls.

EUR/USD was near the session low as US trading got underway as soft PMIs weighed. When the US dollar was hit by its own soft PMI, the trend reversed and EUR?USD rallied 45 pips to 1.1205. There wasn't much drama afterwards as it chopped to 1.1185.

Cable is flirting with unchanged levels in what could be the tenth consecutive decline. It showed some life early in New York trading as it hit a session high at the options cut at 1.5180 but it slowly gave up all the gains in the US afternoon. Last at 1.5128.

The US dollar rallied broadly later in the day as stock markets recovered from a loss. USD/JPY had been as low as 119.50 when London closed and slowly made its way to 119.91 late.

USD/CAD held a strong bid early on as crude rallied on expectations for Hurricane Joakim to hit New York early next week. But then the forecast changed and oil gave up all of its $2 gain. USD/CAD had been as low as 1.3210 then bumped back to 1.3264 but still finished a half-cent lower on the day.

It was a different story in Australia is the it weakened steadily after failing on a second attempted at 0.7080. Heavy selling hit at the London close on a deterioration in stocks at the time and it never recovered. Last at 0.7030.