The U.S. dollar remains the focus of the market, as the data released yesterday boosted hopes for the NFP report that is coming out tomorrow. WTI fell more than 3% over the last three days and is likely to fall even further. The euro has been range-bounded against the majors as well as the sterling.
U.S. Dollar Gains Ground as Hopes for a Strong NFP Boosted
The stronger than expected U.S. data helped the dollar to gain some ground against its major counterparties. Firstly, the ADP employment change released triggered mixed emotions. It surpassed market forecast of 125K and showed that the private business hired 135K workers in September.
However, it was the lowest in 11 months. The ISM non-manufacturing PMI increased the confidence of the USD bulls, as it shows that the services sector expanded the most in 12 years. It jumped to 59.8 in September from 55.3 in August, above market forecasts of 55.5, mainly boosted by production and new orders. The two reports gave hope to the market participants that the NFP figure that is coming out tomorrow, may be higher than expected. The U.S. economy is predicted to have created 98K non-farm jobs in September, the lowest in six months, from 156K in August.
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