Forex news for New York trading on March 4, 2016
- February 2016 US non farm payrolls 242k vs 190k exp
- A graphical summary of the US employment report
- US January trade deficit $45.68B vs $44.0B expected
- Canada trade balance Jan CAD -0.66bln vs -0.9bln exp
- Fed's Kaplan: Central bank independence critical to United States
- Baker Hughes oil rig count 392 vs 400 prior
- Atlanta Fed GDPNow Q1 tracking estimate bumped to 2.2% from 1.9%
- February 2016 Canadian Ivey PMI 53.4 vs 58.0 exp
Markets:
- S&P 500 up 6.59 points to 1999.99
- Gold down $5 to $1259
- US 10-year yields up 4 bps to 1.87%
- WTI crude up 4% to $35.92 per barrel
- NZD leads, CHF and JPY lag
Nonfarm payrolls Friday often disappoints but not this month. The divergence between strong jobs growth and soft wage numbers first led to a US dollar rally and then a total reversal.
EUR/USD dropped to 1.0900 on USD demand and then stormed back to the pre-NFP level of 1.0975 and continued higher to 1.1043, 90 minutes after the report. Later in the day, the gains faded back to 1.1000.
Cable continued its retracement. It hit a session low after the jobs data but bids at 1.4100 held and then it began a march to 1.4247 before a slip back to 1.4200 then a finish near the highs.
USD/JPY was a different story as it was pulled around by the risk trade as well. Stocks were unsure what to do with the data and bounced around. The US dollar traded in an 80 pip range in the immediate aftermath of the report then dove 70 pips to 113.13 followed by a rip to 114.26. Late in the day stock market gains faded and so did the pair, down to 113.70.
The Canadian dollar was the star of the session as it benefitted from another rally in oil. USD/CAD started near 1.3450 and chopped around after non-farm payrolls and then took big advantage of USD weakness and oil. The pair tumbled all the way to 1.3310, finishing near the session low.
AUD/USD closed out a banner week near the highs at 0.7437, gaining another 50 pips in US trading to finish up more than 4% on the week.
