A busy day expects forex traders. This includes the “mini-NFP” in the US and critical employment numbers in New Zealand among many figures from all over the world. Let’s see what’s up for today.
British Nationwide Consumer Confidence rose in January to 73 points. The Pound hasn’t really enjoyed the good figures it received up to now. Also in Britain, the Services PMI fell to 54.5 points in January from 56.8 points. Economists were looking for a reading of 56.5. For more on the GBP/USD, read the British Pound forecast.
A day after the disappointing rate decision, Australia’s trade balance deficit widened in December. Up to now, AUD/USD remained above 0.8735, December’s low. Many figures are released this week in Australia, For an outlook on the next events, read the AUD/USD forecast.
European Retail Sales remained stable. Yesterday’s German retail sales were OK, and rose by 0.8%. Also in Europe, Final Services PMI is predicted to confirm the initial read of 52.3 points. For an update technical analysis of the Euro, I recommend reading Casey Stubbs’ recent article. There’s an important rate decision and more events up the road. Check out more in the EUR/SUD forecast.
In the US, Challenger Job Cuts supply an early jobs indicator. The more important one comes from ADP. The ADP Non-Farm Employment Change is slightly below the 30,000 jobs loss projected, much less than last month’s 84,000 loss. This is sometimes considered an indicator for the NFP, but it isn’t always so. Also in the US, ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI is expected to turn positive and rise above 50 points, meaning expansion. This important indicator will sure boost the dollar if it rises from 49.8 to 51.1 points.
Job figures are due in New Zealand near the end of the day: Employment Change is expected to show a drop of 0.1% and the Unemployment Rate is expected to jump from6.5% to 6.8%. Note that these numbers are critical to the kiwi, as they are quarterly figures, and not monthly as in other countries. At the time of writing, NZD/USD got away from the important 0.70 line.
That’s it for today. Happy forex trading!
Yohay Elam is the owner of Forex Crunch, a blog about the foreign exchange market. It includes tutorials, basics of the forex market, daily and weekly forex analysis, technical analysis, forex software posts, and whatever is related to Forex.
Article copyrighted by Yohay Elam. Content published with author's permission.
