This was the lowest reading in the current economic cycle and the lowest since 1973 which maintained confidence in a very firm labour market and expectations that the Federal Reserve would move to tighten policy in the short term.
Fed Governor Powell maintained an optimistic tone on the outlook and stated that the Fed was very close to meeting its 2% target while a rate increase is on the table for discussion at the March FOMC meeting.
Increased expectations of a March Fed tightening continued to support the dollar, although the Euro did find some support on approach to the 1.0500 level as markets had already moved closer to pricing in a US rate hike with futures markets indicating over a 75% chance of a move.
The Euro found some support at the 1.0500 area without making any significant headway as markets waited for comments from Fed Chair Yellen and Vice-Chair Fischer after the European close on Friday.
Data Day Despite salient data already having been published in China and France so far this morning, we are far from finished with the deluge of data due to reach the market today. The most important of which will be those that we have signposted in earlier briefings: Eurozone and US inflation figures. Given just […]
UK Labour market The Bank of England yesterday broke cover to drive the message home that due to the UK’s labour market remaining tight, it was premature to start talking interest rate cuts and it was not just Governor Bailey who was calling for higher for longer interest rates but also his MEPC colleague Jonathan […]
An interesting day for EURUSD Taken in isolation, many of the events scheduled for today might be thought insufficient to threaten EURUSD. However, together, the concoction of releases concerning the currencies on either side of this pair could make for interesting trading during today’s session. Foremost on the list will be the Fed minutes. As […]