NFP Day, Coronavirus Chronicles, Pound Weakness

The main event of today will be the publication of official statistics on the US labor market. On average, experts expect a gain of 162K. This is more than it was in the previous month, but less than the average value for the last couple of years.

In general, it is worth noting that the trend towards a decrease in the number of newly created jobs with each new publication of data is becoming increasingly apparent. After the peak values of 2014 (then about 3 million new jobs were created during the year), the indicator was constantly decreasing, with the exception of 2018, when Trump's tax reform affected, but already in 2019, the effect had exhausted itself. So the US labor market in 2020 looks rather vulnerable.

Especially in light of the coronavirus epidemic, which continues to gain momentum: the number of deaths is close to 600, and the number of deaths is close to 30,000. Quarantine continues, and more and more countries completely or partially interrupt a transport connection with China.

In this light, data on the US labor market may well be unpleasantly surprising. The only thing that holds us back from frankly negative forecasts is the excellent employment figures from ADP (+ 291K). Although they can play a trick on the dollar because against the background of such numbers, almost any statistics on the NFP will seem weak.

In total, we will not be surprised at the weak NFP figures, but we would not dare to put on this forecast. Instead, we offer traditional news trading in a pair of USDCAD. Recall that in parallel with the data from the United States will be published statistics on the labor market of Canada. That is, the USDCAD pair has a chance of a double impulse with no obvious direction. So a minute before the publication of data, we place pending orders such as stop orders for purchases and sales at 20-25 points from the current price at that time. And just waiting for the data. If there is a situation with data overlay (positive for the Canadian dollar and negative for the American or vice versa), then we remain in position until the end of the day.

To other news and events of yesterday. In the foreign exchange market, the pound was under pressure amid growing investor concern over the outcome of trade negotiations between the UK and the EU. We believe that the parties will agree. In the end, the United States and China were able to enter the first phase, let alone Britain and the EU. So pound purchases remain one of our favorite forex positions.

For other assets and markets, buying gold and the Japanese yen is still a priority. But with oil we, perhaps, will wait a while. The asset can not decide who it is - buyers and sellers - so we'll wait for more clarity. Moreover, Saudi Arabia and Russia have been agreeing on something for three days. The outcome of the negotiations could potentially blow up the oil market.