Forex news for US trading May 5, 2015:

  • April 2015 US ADP employment 169k vs 200k exp
  • Q1 2015 US labour costs flash 5.0% vs 4.3% exp
  • Canada Ivey PMI 58.2 vs 49.2 expected
  • EIA crude oil inventories -3.882m vs +1.5m expected
  • Fed's Lockhart says to watch consumer spending close for liftoff signal
  • Lockhart: Still believes conditions in place for mid-year liftoff
  • Greece and Europe circling around an agreement for Monday
  • Final Guardian/ICM poll puts UK election in a dead heat
  • Yellen: Policy makers remain watchful for areas of financial sector risks
  • Low interest rates are necessary to help meet objectives says Yellen
  • Iran will boost their oil production 10 days after sanctions are lifted
  • US MBA mortgage market index 427.3 vs 447.9 prior
  • Varoufakis calls for 'bad bank' in Greece
  • ECB said to raise ELA emergency lending to Greek banks by 2b euros
  • ECB defers decision on Greek collateral haircuts to next week - BBG
  • S&P 500 down 15 points to 2075
  • Gold down $2 to $1191
  • EUR leads, USD and CAD lag

The US dollar was under constant, but choppy pressure after a poor reading on ADP employment.

The dollar has been more-or-less flat coming into trading and in anticipation of the jobs numbers. When the data disappointed, the dollar dropped with USD/JPY down to 119.36 from 119.80 the rebounding to 119.60 before a second push lower to 119.20, yet another rebound to 119.60 and then back down near lows again late in the day.

The euro move was a bit less choppy as the pair jumped above 1.1250 and crept toward 1.1300 where it hit a wave of buy stops up to 1.1369. After Europe clocked off, it looked like it might be time for a bit of back-and-fill but a second wave of buying it late and made a marginal new high at 1.1370.

Cable once again rallied and once again ran into orders ahead of a big figure. It was 1.5300 this time with the high of the day at 1.5293 about an hour after ADP. The market is cautious ahead of Thursday's election and prices consolidated around 1.5250.

USD/CAD fell as the US dollar sank after ADP and oil prices rose but the US dollar staged a small comeback and oil couldn't hold onto gains after the EIA data and began to slip. That prompted a turnaround, along with election worries and USD/CAD rebounded a cent from the lows to 1.2040. Note that at the lows, it was the lowest since Jan 18.

AUD/USD crested over 0.8000 but slipped after Europe clocked out and with Australian jobs data coming up.