A second week of disappointments from US weekly jobless claims: they rose to 344K. Continuing claims are up to 2.71 million. US weekly jobless claims were expected to drop to 317K from 329K reported last week (now revised to 330K). Continuing claims were predicted to edge up to 2.708 million. And there are more figures awaiting traders as well: Personal spending was predicted to rise by 0.7% and it rose by 0.9%. Personal income rose by 0.5% beating 0.4% expected. The Core PCE Price Index, which is watched by the Fed, carried expectations for a rise of 0.1% but it rose by 0.2%. Year over year, the figure advanced from 1.1% to 1.2%.
Before the publication, EUR/USD traded at 1.3875, GBP/USD just under 1.69 and USD/JPY around 102.30. The dollar is marginally lower after all this data.
Update: ISM Manufacturing PMI beat expectations
Also note that Fed Chair Janet Yellen is delivering a speech at the same time but her speech focuses on community banking rather than on monetary policy.
Yesterday, the Fed tapered bond buys for the fourth time, cutting the monthly bond buys to $45 billion. This was exactly as expected. The wording of the statement was little changed.
Later today we still have one important event that serves as a hint towards the Non-Farm Payrolls: See how to trade the ISM Manufacturing PMI with USD/JPY.
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