Today is “Non Farm Friday” when markets will get their monthly infusion of US jobs data. This is always an important event for the USD and risk assets and today’s pending release is no exception. The data has started to trend positively looking at a six month average where it sits at 142k jobs see chart below:
There have been some signs that this data is improving as Jobless claims have been falling: this can mean 1) people are really finding work or 2) people are dropping off the statistics.
According to analyst surveys the markets are looking for a number of 140k to 150k this would help keep the trend moving in the right direction. More recently around the 200k level has been tested a few times and the jobless markets have seemed to stall. December numbers were helped by part timers being employed for the holiday season.
This is seen as very important aspect for Obama’s re-election hopes as unemployment has been of major concerns to the US economy.
In the currency markets the USD index up slightly at 78.991 + 0.013 most risk assets are flat in the lead up to today’s release. Comex Gold is trading at USD1759.10 which is +2.30 in early trading. NFP Friday always has a volatile flavor to the trading day.
Good Trading. CF
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