The US dollar is losing ground against its major currency rivals to finish off the trading week. After the latest jobs report still showed a robust labor market to kick off 2019, investors will now see if the Federal Reserve will revise its âpatientâ stance and return to its aggressive path to normalizing monetary policy.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US economy added 304,000 new jobs in January, beating median estimates of 172,000. The unemployment rate did edge up 0.1% to 4%. The Department of Labor (DOL) confirmed that the partial government shutdown had little impact on net hiring, despite the doom and gloom forecasts on Wall Street and in Washington.
Moreover, average hourly wages rose three cents, or 0.1%, to $27.56 per hour, bringing the 12-month rate of hourly wage gains to 3.2%.
The federal government also revised its previous jobs numbers. In November, labor gains were revised upwards from 176,000 to 196,000. In December, the DOL changed its report from 312,000 new jobs to 222,000.
In other data, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.46% in the week ending January 31, up 0.1% from the previous week, reports Freddie Mac. The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged 3.96%, and the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.89%.
Last month, US stocks enjoyed their best January in 30 years as the Dow Jones Industrial Averages and S&P 500 were lifted by gains in financials and small caps. In January, the Dow rose 10.2% and the S&P 500 advanced 10.4%. This suggests that traders are pouring their cash into sectors that are tied to the national economy, revealing that there are still plenty of bulls left in this market.
The trends did not stimulate or hurt the US Dollar Index as the greenback dipped 0.07% to 95.49. The index is on track for a weekly loss of 0.3%.
Traders will now look ahead to manufacturing, construction, and consumer sentiment on Friday.
The USD/CAD currency pair advanced 0.09% to 1.3137, from an opening of 1.3127, at 12:35 GMT on Friday. The EUR/USD climbed 0.1% to 1.1457, from an opening of 1.1450.
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