Markets await US unemployment data
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Daily Currency Update
The dollar gained across the board yesterday driven by some very strong housing data from the US. The monthly New Home Sales reading for August showed that 800k properties were sold for the month. The reading was the highest since January 2022 and far exceeded the 650k predicted. This combined with recent comments from Federal Reserve chairman, Jay Powell, that the pace of interest rate cuts may not be as fast as markets expect has supported the dollar over recent days. EUR/USD which briefly traded above 1.19 last week, is back to 1.1730 and GBP/USD has mirrored the move currently down to around 1.3450.Key Movers
Today brings the latest Unemployment Claims data from the US with 233k expected to be shown for last week. After a couple of months of poor employment data, which has seen job creation slow, and the unemployment rate push up to 4.3% from 4.1% the weekly update has gained far more attention so could move the markets when it’s unveiled at 1:30pm. At the same time, we have the final estimate of Q2 GDP from America which is expected hold at 3.3%. We also have Durable Goods data which is expected to moderate from last month.Expected Ranges
- GBP/USD: 1.3380 - 1.3530 ▼
- GBP/EUR: 1.1435 - 1.1505 ▼
- GBP/AUD: 2.0340 - 2.0500 ▲
- EUR/USD: 1.1675 - 1.1810 ▼