EUR/USD was moving gradually lower today but accelerated the decline sharply after the release of nonfarm payrolls. Unlike the private report from Automatic Data Processing, the official employment data was far better than expectations. It is important to note, though, that other parts of the report, namely the unemployment rate and wage inflation, were disappointing.
US nonfarm payrolls rose by 224k in June, exceeding market expectations of an increase of 162k. The May’s terrible figure got a small negative revision from 75k to 72k. Unemployment rate rose unexpectedly from 3.6% to 3.7%. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2%, whereas analysts were expecting a 0.3% rate of increase, the same as in the previous month (revised up from 0.2%). (Event A on the chart.)
If you have any comments on the recent EUR/USD action, please reply using the form below.
