Forex news for New York trading on February 1, 2019:
- January non-farm payrolls 304K vs 165K expected
- University of Michigan Consumer confidence sentiment (F) 91.2 vs 90.7 est.
- US January ISM manufacturing index 56.6 vs 54.0 expected
- US Markit final manufacturing PMI 54.9 vs 54.9 expected
- Canada Markit manufacturing PMI 53.0 vs 53.6 prior
- Baker Hughes oil rig count 847, down 15 rigs in current week
- Other Trump comments: May meet Xi after visiting North Korea's Kim
- Pres. Trump: He will be looking at national emergency for wall funding
- Fed's Kaplan: Inflation pressure likely to be muted in slower economy
- Fed's Kaplan: Fed rate pause was absolutely the right thing to do
- US Wholesale inventories for Nov (F) 0.3% vs 0.5% estimate
- US November final wholesale inventories +0.3% vs +0.5% expected
- Fed's Bullard: Jobs data for Jan was strong but still time to wait and see
Markets:
- Gold down $3.30 to $1318
- WTI crude up $1.50 to $55.29
- US 10-year yields up 6 bps to 2.69%
- S&P 500 up 2 points to 2706
- CAD leads, JPY lags
Nonfarm payrolls were a bit of a puzzle. The establishment survey showed massive job creation but the household survey showed the opposite and a climbing unemployment rate. There were revisions and surprises galore and the market did a good job of adjusting for that quickly.
Initially the US dollar rose but only about a dozen pips. It quickly gave that back and was mostly lower, outside of USD/JPY, which was up then continued to climb to 109.50 as yields rose.
USD/CAD fell immediately on a better outlook for North America. Oil prices later rose nearly 3% giving a second wind to the loonie and dropping USD/CAD to near a 3-month low at 1.3069 before a late bounce to 1.3092.
Its commodity cousins weren't so lucky as yesterday's AUD gains unraveled in a slide down to 0.7250 after an earlier pop to 0.7280.