Caution before payrolls

EUR/USD

It’s an important day for the markets today as they are expecting a release of the US employment statistics for July. Some commentators have even called this report to be the most important in the year. It’s too much, of course, but eloquently speaks about what agitation today’s data are arousing. In the second quarter they were very reassuring, surpassing the expectations, but that was preceded by the horrible statistics at the beginning of the year. The economy generally repeated that trend, as is obvious from the GDP rates, which proved to be the worst among the non-recession periods. Anyway, Wednesday’s more…

Bears win back 200-day MA in EUR

EUR/USD

Thursday’s stats on US employment contributed to strengthening of the US dollar. Yet, growth of the latter is least conspicuous against the pound, but against the euro and the yen the US currency has appreciated well enough. The dollar bulls want to depict the recent surrender of the 200-day MAs in EURUSD and USDJPY as an occasional and short-term trip beyond the key levels. The main reason for this movement is perfect employment statistics. The employment has grown by 288K, in the private sector its increase has been also good – by 262K. As a result, the average semiannual growth totals more…

Why the ECB failed to put pressure on the euro

EUR/USD

The single currency frayed traders’ nerves a lot yesterday. Its initial decline from 1.3540 to 1.3501 for about an hour was recouped by the reverse growth and closing at 1.3660.The ECB cut all the three rates, making the bank deposit rate negative. So what aroused purchasing of the single currency again? First of all, the demand for risky assets, provoked by the rate decrease. After all, it often supports the single currency. Then it is a correction of the forward guidance, which now states that the rates won’t be reduced again. It was expected that the ECB would also take other more…

The narrow channels of Forex

EUR/USD

Yesterday’s attempt of the euro to come off  the four-month lows proved to be futile. The euro/dollar has been plying between 1.3585 and 1.36550 for over a week. The certain dissatisfaction with the US statistics, due to the poor employment data from ADP, could strengthen the single currency only for a while yesterday, taking it to the upper bound of the range. As reported by that company, the US private firms in May increased the number of jobs by 179K instead of the expected 217. The rates for the preceding two months were also revised down. The foreign trade data also more…

Plain payrolls, mixed reaction

EUR/USD

Friday’s data on the US employment proved to be surprisingly favourable. The employment grew by 288K and the statistics for the preceding two months were revised up by 36K in total. The unemployment decline, which looks really shocking at first sight (from 6.7% to 6.3%) is ensured by another decrease in the workforce. In April the participation rate again occurred at 62.8%. This is a low, which has been hit only twice in modern times – in October and December 2013. Before that the indicator was that low only in the late 70s, but at that time it was in the more…