I’ll try to cover the latest fundamental reports from the U.S. economy that affected the EUR/USD pair this week. Today, the dollar is losing against the euro, but overall week is almost a perfect doji candle with a lower spike being a bit longer than the upper one. The weekly high for EUR/USD lies near 1.4376 and the low — near 1.4176. Currently it’s trading near 1.4306.
Nonfarm payrolls were reported today, showing a loss of 216k in August, following 276k decline in July. The forecasts expected 230k drop. The overall unemployment rate went up to 9.7% — up from 9.4%.
Other important reports this week included:
Chicago PMI business barometer index jumped up from 43.4 to 50.0 in August. It was expected to grow to 48.0.
ISM PMI index rose from 48.9% to 52.9% in August. This increase exceeded the forecasted growth to 50.5%.
Pending home sales index rose by 3.2% in July after advancing by 3.6% in June. Only 1.5% change was expected to be reported according to the analysts’ forecast.
Construction spending report disappointed traders with the monthly change for July at -0.2% after 0.3% growth a month earlier and zero change expectation.
ADP employment report showed a decrease by 298k workplaces in August, which is not that bad after 360k loss in July, but nevertheless the forecasts were pointing at -260k change.
Thanks to the extensive optimization of their business processes by the companies, the nonfarm productivity increased at an annual rate of 6.6% in the second quarter of 2009, which is better than 6.4% released in the preliminary report.
Factory orders rose by 1.3% in July, coming higher than 0.9% gain in June, but falling short of 2.2% estimated by the market analysts.
Crude oil inventories decreased by 0.4 million barrels during the last week, while the total motor gasoline inventories dropped by 3 million barrels during the same period.
Initial jobless claims were at 570k last week — down from 574k during the week before that. The market participants expected a 560k value.
ISM non-manufacturing index rose from 46.4% to 48.4% in August. The forecast value was quite close — at 48.2%.
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