Only 139K private sector jobs were added in the US in February, according to Automatic Data Processing, somewhat less than expected. The ADP Non-Farm Payrolls report for the private sector was expected to slide to 159K in February from 127K in January (revised down from 175K). This is a significant hint towards the official BLS Non-Farm Payrolls report due on Friday, even though the correlation between the two hasn’t been so clear in recent months. ADP has recently overstated job growth.
Before the release, EUR/USD traded around 1.3730, USD/JPY at 102.43 and GBP/USD was around 1.67. The dollar is slightly lower across the board, but no big moves are seen in the major pairs.
A breakout is seen in NZD/USD: the kiwi is now trading at 0.8430, a level unseen in many long weeks, and above the highs seen last week.
Bad weather could be blamed for the shortcoming, but construction jobs, which are often impacted by weather, actually grew nicely. Job losses in the financial services sector has been the worst since 2011.
Another significant figure that also serves as an NFP hint is due later on: the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI. See how to trade the ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI with USD/JPY.
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