The US dollar demonstrated extremely volatile reaction to nonfarm payrolls, falling then rebounding immediately. As it was usual lately, the employment report did not produce a clear picture of the US labor market, having both good and bad parts.
On one hand, the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed an increase of employment by healthy 196,000 in March, which was above the consensus forecast of 172,000. The February abysmal figure of 20,000 got a positive revision, but just to paltry 33,000. The unemployment rate remained low at 3.8%. But on the other hand, wage inflation slowed as average hourly earnings rose just 0.1% versus the expectations of 0.3% and the increase by 0.4% logged in the previous month.
Yesterday’s meeting between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US President Donald Trump at the White House had positive but inconclusive outcome. Both sides signaled that a substantial progress was made, but no details were available. Trump said that it will be clear “over the next four weeks” if a trade deal is reached. Markets somewhat disappointed that the deal was a bit further away than was previously thought.
EUR/USD traded at 1.1229 as of 12:56 GMT today after opening at 1.1220 and touching the daily high of 1.1248. GBP/USD declined from 1.3074 to 1.3043 after rallying to the session maximum of 1.3121 earlier. USD/JPY remained little changed at 111.64.
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