The US dollar was little changed against the basket of major currencies during Wednesday’s trading as clashing economic reports did not allow the currency to establish a clear trend.
The employment report from Automatic Data Processing disappointed dollar bulls, showing growth by just 154,000 in September while market participants were counting on an increase by at least 166,000. The data led to concerns that Friday’s non-farm payrolls may disappoint as well. Yet the dollar was rescued by the very strong readings for the services sector from both Markit and Institute for Supply Management.
While the Friday’s employment report will be important, there will be plenty of data before the December policy meeting of the Federal Reserve, which draws attention of traders, who continue anticipate an interest rate hike at the gathering. The CME FedWatch page shows that the probability of a hike hangs around 60%, though it decreased from the previous day slightly.
EUR/USD traded at about 1.1207 as of 23:15 GMT today, not far from the session opening of 1.1202. GBP/USD was near 1.2748 after opening at 1.2725. USD/JPY performed better, rising from 102.90 to 103.50 and trading near the highest level since September 6.
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