Forex Today: US Nonfarm Payrolls to ramp up volatility ahead of the weekend
|Here is what you need to know on Friday, December 8:
The US Dollar (USD) weakened against its major rivals as risk flows returned to markets on Thursday, with the USD Index snapping a three-day winning streak. November jobs report from the US, which will include Nonfarm Payroll (NFP) and wage inflation data, will be watched closely by market participants ahead of the weekend. The US economic docket will also feature the University of Michigan preliminary Consumer Sentiment Survey for December.
US NFP Forecast: Nonfarm Payrolls gains expected to accelerate slightly in November.
Following a mixed opening, Wall Street's main indexes gained traction on Thursday and the Nasdaq Composite led the way by rising 1.5%. Meanwhile, the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield held below 4.2% after losing more than 3% in the first half of the week. Early Friday, US stock index futures trade flat on the day and the USD Index consolidates Thursday's losses slightly above 103.50. The Unemployment Rate in the US is forecast to remain unchanged at 3.9% and NFP are expected to rise by 180,000.
US Dollar price this week
The table below shows the percentage change of US Dollar (USD) against listed major currencies this week. US Dollar was the strongest against the Australian Dollar.
| USD | EUR | GBP | CAD | AUD | JPY | NZD | CHF | |
| USD | 0.96% | 1.01% | 0.67% | 1.03% | -1.69% | 0.83% | 0.88% | |
| EUR | -0.99% | 0.06% | -0.30% | 0.07% | -2.71% | -0.11% | -0.08% | |
| GBP | -1.05% | -0.05% | -0.34% | 0.02% | -2.74% | -0.17% | -0.13% | |
| CAD | -0.67% | 0.30% | 0.35% | 0.37% | -2.39% | 0.19% | 0.22% | |
| AUD | -1.04% | -0.07% | -0.02% | -0.37% | -2.73% | -0.19% | -0.15% | |
| JPY | 1.63% | 2.62% | 2.83% | 2.35% | 2.69% | 2.48% | 2.54% | |
| NZD | -0.84% | 0.13% | 0.17% | -0.17% | 0.19% | -2.50% | 0.04% | |
| CHF | -0.90% | 0.09% | 0.13% | -0.21% | 0.15% | -2.61% | -0.04% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Euro from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the Japanese Yen, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent EUR (base)/JPY (quote).
During the Asian trading hours, the data from Japan showed that the Gross Domestic Product contracted at an annual rate of 2.9% in the third quarter. This reading came in worse than the market estimate for a contraction of 2.1%. After falling sharply on hawkish Bank of Japan surprise on Thursday, USD/JPY seems to have stabilized slightly above 144.00 on Friday.
EUR/USD registered small gains on Thursday but failed to reclaim 1.0800. In the European morning on Friday, the pair was moving up and down in a tight channel below this level.
GBP/USD snapped a three-day losing streak before going into a consolidation phase slightly below 1.2600 on Friday. The Bank of England will release Consumer Inflation Expectations data later in the European session.
Gold struggled to make a decisive move in either direction and closed the day virtually unchanged slightly below $2,030 on Thursday. XAU/USD fluctuates near that level early Friday.
(This story was corrected on December 8 at 08:33 GMT to say that the US Unemployment Rate is forecast to remain unchanged at 3.9%, not 43.9%.)
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