The U.S. Dollar closed flat on Friday. The day was marked with some mixed economic reports and a speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell which sent the equity markets briefly higher easing back the risk-averse sentiment in the market.
On the economic front, the Eurozone’s final services PMI was seen to have declined to 51.2. This was below estimates of 51.4 according to the flash estimates. Services PMI was seen to have turned weaker across Germany and France as well.
Inflation estimates from the Eurozone also had some bad news as the headline inflation rose 1.6% which was slower than the expected forecasts of 1.8%. In November, consumer prices were seen at 2.0%. Core inflation data was seen to be stable at 1.0%.
In the NY trading session, Canada’s unemployment data showed that the economy added 9.3k jobs which were higher than the estimates of a 6.8k increase. Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.6%, unchanged from the previous month.
The U.S. payrolls data, on the other hand, showed that the unemployment rate rose to 3.9%, up from 3.7%. Average hourly earnings were seen rising 0.4% on the month which was better than forecasts.
Looking ahead, the data today will cover the factory orders report from Germany. Economists forecast that factory orders will fall 0.2% on the month. Retail sales from Germany follows later which is forecast to rise 0.4% on the month.
The NY trading session is relatively quiet with only the ISM’s non-manufacturing PMI report coming out. Economists expect the non-manufacturing PMI to slip to 59.6, down from 60.7 previously.
