EUR/USD crashed today after the release of US nonfarm payrolls, which beat even optimistic forecast. Today’s data followed yesterday’s employment report, which was also far better than Forex trades have counted on. Other US indicators released today were in line with expectations. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank was meeting today but did not make any noticeable changes to its monetary policy.
Nonfarm payrolls jumped 288k in June, much more than was expected (214k) and far above the revised May value (224k). What is more, the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell from 6.3% to 6.1%. (Event A on the chart.)
US trade balance posted a deficit of $44.4 billion in May. The trade gap was smaller than April’s $47.0 billion and the predicted shortage of $45.1 billion. (Event A on the chart.)
Initial jobless claims were up by 2k to 315k last week, matching market expectations. (Event A on the chart.)
ISM services PMI was at 56.0% in June, not far from the the forecast figure of 56.2% and the May reading of 56.3%. (Event B on the chart.)
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