Positive news for the US: jobless claims remain at a low level of 304K. Continuing claims drop to 2.739 million. US weekly jobless claims were expected to rise back up to 316K from the low level of 302K seen last week (revised down from 300K originally reported). The 4 week moving average dropped to 312K. Continuing claims were predicted to rise back up from 2.776 to 2.795 million. After a long time of steady numbers, recent jobless claims numbers have dropped and spurred optimism.
The US dollar was losing ground against various currencies before the release. EUR/USD traded around 1.3850, GBP/USD at 1.68 and USD/JPY around 102.15. The dollar is marginally stronger after the publication.
USD/CAD traded just above the round number of 1.10. At the same time as the US jobless claims release, Canada released local inflation numbers. Canada was expected to report a rise in headline CPI to 1.4% and core inflation of 1.3%. Both are year over year numbers. Update: Canadian inflation numbers rose as expected. USD/CAD falls below 1.10.
There is still one more important publication before the long Easter weekend: the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index. See how to trade the Philly indicator with GBPUSD.