US Dollar Fluctuations and the August Non-Farm Payrolls

The US dollar lost ground to other major currencies during early Friday trading, ahead of the release of the August Non-Farm Payrolls later in the day. Today’s softness comes on the back of Thursday’s gains, which followed the release of stronger-than-expected personal spending numbers. These ups and downs of the currency illustrate well the uncertainty amongst analysts and traders, over how the Fed will proceed later this month when it meets to decide on monetary policy. Against this background, today’s NFPs will be closely watched as the employment data may become the tiebreaker when the FOMC meets again later in September. A positive number, which in this case would be more than 170,000 new jobs created in August, could tip the scales and convince the more dovish policymakers to agree with another rate hike. Conversely, a disappointing number would almost certainly settle the issue, erasing any chance of further tightening in the short term.

Ricardo Evangelista – Senior Analyst, ActivTrades