Four Times Negative Streak for U.S. Jobs

The end of last week revealed Australia’s figures regarding retail sales. The seasonally adjusted results for August came out as expected at 0.4%, versus July’s -0.1%. If we take a look at the trend, we can see that the Australian turnover has risen to 4.3% this August compared with last year’s same period.

UK’s currency hiked after a lethargic period and pushed GBP/USD over the resistance of 1.5140, up to 1.5180. The major FX pair got its momentum after UK’s September Construction PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) came out over the estimated 57.5 and above August’s 57.3, at 59.9 and also marking a 7-month high. This has allowed the spot to peak around the 1.5180 threshold, but coming down soon after, without receiving any impact from the US Non-farm Payrolls – missed expectations in September.

Regarding the US Non-farm Payrolls, we should add that the figures came out under the forecasted 203K, at only142k added jobs in September according to the latest information received from the US Labor Department. A big hit also comes from the downwardly revised number in August, from previous 173,000 jobs to 136,000. July’s results were also revised down to 223,000 from previous reporting of 245,000. At the same time, unemployment remained at 5.1% as expected, but after a fall-out in August. To add more twist to the already grim scenario, the Average Hourly Earnings came up flat on a monthly basis, although they were expected to gain a 0.2% margin, assumption based mainly on the 2.2% expansion over the course of the last 12 months.

The EUR/USD managed to reach 1.1318 after the release of the somehow disappointing US labor data, which as mentioned before, failed to meet expectations and also pushed further a possible Fed rate hike this year. Over the world, the USD weakened because of the setback but managed to come back some of the distance in the last few hours. If we look at the trend, the major gave up a little over 100 pips and retreated in the vicinity of 1.1210.

Friday’s NFP (Non-farm Payrolls) has boosted the prices of gold, pushing them in the $1,140/Oz area. Regarding the yellow metal, prices hiked up after US’s not that positive data. Gold has managed to shrug off the negative tone in the dusk of the data release, following closely the increase in the USD’s bearish tone as well as the delays in Fed’s presumable rate hike.