In the US, Unemployment Claims, The number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance over the last week, is due to rise up from 367K to 390K.

Pressure is growing on Greece’s politicians to accept harsher measures regarding the labor market and to fully commit to them, also after the elections. Negotiations are at a sensitive point. In the US, the excellent jobs report lowers the chances of QE3 and provided hope for the whole world. It weakened EUR/USD.

Here’s an update on technicals, fundamentals and what’s going on in the markets.

In the US, Unemployment Claims, important indicator to value the unemployed that are looking for jobs over the last month, rise of 1K is predicted up to 373K.

Troubles in Unicredit, rumors about issues at Deutsche Bank and the anticipation for a downgrade of France all weigh on the euro, in addition to weak economic figures from all over the continent. Is Draghi ready for QE? On the other side of the Atlantic, the US continues seeing growth in jobs and a drop in unemployment. The IMF has doubts about Greece’s ability to avoid default, and a German politician talks about a need for a bigger haircut. This doesn’t bode well for the euro. The euro was trading in calm waters until Fitch said that the euro-zone is facing a “cataclysmic” collapse if the ECB doesn’t intervene. Positive comments from Merkel regarding the ESM helped. Also a downwards revision of the euro-zone GDP weakened the common currency. All eyes are now on the ECB – see a preview of the highly anticipated decision.

Last week weekly jobless claims dropped to 372K continuing the recovery process in the labor market after 387K claims in the prior week. ADP Non-Farm Payrolls also surprised with a gain of 325K jobs in the private sector, much better than the 176K predicted. These wonderful readings led to the grand finale event, the Non-Farm Payrolls, surging higher than expected with an addition of 200,000 and another drop in the unemployment rate. These positive figures raise expectations for a stronger job market in 2012.

Here’s a quick update on technicals, fundamentals and what’s going on in the markets.

In the US, Unemployment Claims, value the number the unemployed that asked for insurance on the past month, about to reduce down to 397K from 402K in November.

6 central banks coordinated to cut US dollar swaps by 50 basis points. This provides some relief for the troubled European banks, but doesn’t solve Italy’s big problem: high costs for debt. Many ideas are floating, but there’s only one player that is able to provide a game changing move: the ECB. Will it finally act?

Non-Farm Payrolls came out as expected, but the surprising drop in the unemployment rate provided a lot of hope. Also CB Consumer Confidence exceeded expectations with more than 15 point rise reaching 56.0 following months of decline. Can the US economy lead the world once again? There are doubts. Let’s Start