Home Daily Commentaries Dollar knocked down by disappointing jobs report

Dollar knocked down by disappointing jobs report

Daily Currency Update

USD - United States Dollar


The US dollar weakened against other major currencies after a key jobs report missed expectations. The US Dollar Index was down 0.14%, trading around 92.10 at the time of writing.

Friday’s non-farm payroll report showed the US added only 235,000 jobs in August, well below economist expectations of 725,000. However, the unemployment rate decreased to 5.2% from 5.4% in the previous month. This snag in the labor market could potentially mean that the US Federal Reserve won’t taper stimulus soon.

Key Movers

The euro strengthened slightly against the US dollar after the softer than expected jobs data. With Eurozone inflation jumping to 3% a headache is created for the ECB, which in more usual economic circumstances may raise interest rates. This could add support to the single currency, but investors believe that the ECB isn't interested in adjusting its monetary policy for the time being. EURUSD for the time being remains below 1.1900.

Broad dollar weakness benefitted the pound, the Australian dollar and the Canadian dollar. GBPUSD broke above 1.38, AUDUSD was up 0.58% and USDCAD was down 0.22% at the time of writing.

Expected Ranges

  • EUR/USD: 1.186 - 1.1905 ▲
  • GBP/USD: 1.3821 - 1.3872 ▲
  • AUD/USD: 0.7397 - 0.7467 ▲
  • USD/CAD: 1.2502 - 1.2565 ▼