US nonfarm payrolls demonstrated a huge increase, boosting the US dollar against other currencies, including the euro. EUR/USD ended Friday below the opening level, though it almost erased its losses before the end of trading.
Nonfarm payrolls surged by 292k in December, way above the forecasters’ predictions of 203k and the revised November’s increase of 252k (211k before the revision). Unemployment rate stayed at 5.0%. Average hourly earnings did not grow while analysts had anticipated the same 0.2% growth as in the previous month.
Wholesale inventories were down 0.3% in November, the same as in October, while experts had predicted no change.
Consumer credit rose by $13.9 billion in November. This is compared to the forecast increase of $18.7 billion. The October’s increase was revised negatively from $16.0 billion to $15.7 billion.
Yesterday, a report on initial jobless claims was released, showing a reading of 277k last week. It was below the previous week’s value of 287k but above the average forecast level of 271k.
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