EUR/USD steadies near 1.0800, erases more than 300 pips weekly

• Unemployment Rate in US rose to 4.4% in March from 3.5%.
• ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI stays above 50 in March.
• US Dollar Index adds more than 2% since Monday.

The EUR/USD pair edged lower during the American trading hours and looks to end the day around the 1.0800 handle as the market action turns subdued following key data releases from the US. As of writing, the pair was down 0.55% on the day at 1.0795. On a weekly basis, the pair is down more than 300 pips.

USD looks to end week on strong footing

The data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) in March declined by 701K and the Unemployment Rate surged to 4.4% from 3.5%. With the initial market reaction to the labour market data, the USD continued to find demand as a safe-haven and the US Dollar Index (DXY) advanced to a daily high of 100.85.

Commenting on the NFP report, “the foreign exchange market is fairly well-kept following this awful number. Unfortunately, the jobs data will only get materially worse for April,” noted TD Securities analysts. “Once the dust settles and the recessionary mindset is now afoot, the USD is still the best of a bad lot. We struggle to think that any of the majors poses a threat to the depth and liquidity of the world’s reserve currency.”

Other data from the US showed that the economic activity in the US service sector surprisingly continued to expand in March with the ISM Non-Manufacturing coming in at 52.5 to beat the market expectation of 44 by a wide margin. As of writing, the DXY was up 0.62% on the day at 100.72.

Meanwhile, the Eurostat announced that Retail Sales in the euro area increased by 0.9% on a monthly basis in February but this reading failed to help the shared currency find demand.

Technical levels to watch for