Forex News
Morning FX Market Commentary
Currencies: dollar succeeds only cautious rebound after the payrolls The dollar was under pressure ahead of the payrolls as currency markets feared a poor report. This fear was not justified as the report was slightly better than expected.
Employment: Signals of Slower Second Quarter Growth
Employment rose by 175,000 jobs with gains concentrated in the private services sector; manufacturing and government jobs fell.
Non-farm payrolls in May stronger than expected, but April was revised down
• Private non-farm payrolls up 178,000 in May, from 157,000 in April
USD takes a pummelling ahead of non-farm payrolls, ECB on hold for the foreseeable future, is the rally about to end?
The USD came under sharp selling pressure across the board from about BST15.30 onwards yesterday.
ECB comment: Short action: “yes”, long words: “well… not much”
There was not a lot of news in ECB’s monetary policy meeting today. The ECB is ready to act again, if key figures disappoint,
UK Monetary policy unchanged
Following today’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting, the Bank of England maintained its official rate at 0.5% and the amount of asset purchases at 375£ billion.
April Balance of Trade: Third monthly surplus on the trot.
• April’s trade balance was a modest $28 million surplus after posting upwardly revised surpluses in February and March.
Factory Orders Barely Hold Up as Activity Slows
A 1.0 percent increase in April factory orders is not much of a bounce after a 4.7 percent decline in March.
UK: Good news from services
In May, activity once more accelerated in services. The CIPS services activity index (to 54.9 from 52.9) reached its highest level since March 2012.
GDP – QI 2013. Initial Views
• Real GDP rose by a modest 0.6% in Q1 2013 and annual growth stands at a below trend pace of 2.5%.
NZ Building Work Put In Place – QI 2013
• Building work put in place +5.8% QoQ • Residential work put in place +12.0% QoQ
US Trade Deficit Widens In April
The April trade balance widened to $40.3 billion for the month following a sharp narrowing in March. Both import and export growth edged higher for the month,