A slightly better than expected jobless number in the US: 304K, a drop of 11K from last week. US jobless claims were expected to remain at the familiar levels of around 316K. Last week, they stood on 315K (before revisions). Continuing claims now stand at 2.584 million, up from 2.574 million. The four week average is now 311.5K instead of 315K.
The US dollar was showing signs of recovery towards the publication. Currencies seem unaffected initially. Update: the dollar is dropping a bit, with a new low in USD/JPY.
Dollar/yen is down to 101.22, just above support at 101.20. EUR/USD bounced off 1.36. It suffered beforehand. GBP/USD is bouncing from 1.71.
Earlier in the week, the US received an upwards jolt from the JOLTS job openings survey. At 4.63 million, job openings are back to pre-crisis levels.
The Fed has very gently shifted to a more hawkish tone, but certainly remains cautious. The US dollar has had a hard time capitalizing on the upcoming end of QE.
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