One of the most important events this week was the release of US nonfarm payrolls, which was expected to ease worries about slowdown of the US economic growth. Yet in reality the employment data was disappointing and sent the US dollar lower.
Payrolls demonstrated a meager 75,000 growth in December(revised higher by 1,000 from the initial estimate), and analysts have expected that today’s report would be much better, showing an increase by 185,000. Yet the actual figure was just 113,000 — nowhere near the 200,000 level, which is considered to be a minimum required for sustainable economic expansion. At the same time, the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell by 0.1 percentage point to 6.6 percent.
The dollar sank after the release, but quickly pared losses, though it still trades below the opening level. The nonofficial report, which was released earlier this week, was also disappointing.
EUR/USD was up from 1.3589 to 1.3604 as of 13:56 GMT today. GBP/USD climbed from 1.6320 to 1.6367. USD/JPY sank from 102.10 to 101.43, but bounced to trade near the opening level later.
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