The U.S. Dollar recovered on Friday as the economic data was broadly positive. The monthly payrolls report showed that the average hourly earnings rose at a slower pace of 0.1%. However, on a year over year basis, average hourly earnings grew 3.2%. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.0% which was higher than the forecasts of 3.9%.
The economy added 304k jobs during January which beat estimates by a substantial margin. There was a net 70k downward revision for November and December.
Construction spending data showed a 0.8% increase on the month which showed an acceleration from the month before as it beat estimates of 0.2% increase.
The ISM manufacturing PMI data showed an increase to 56.6 on the index. This was higher than the month before and beat estimates of a 54.1 reading.
Earlier in the day, data from the Eurozone showed that the inflation estimates for January fell. Headline CPI increased by 1.4% on the year while core CPI posted a modest increase to 1.1% on the year.
The Eurozone’s manufacturing PMI came in at 50.5 matching estimates and unchanged from the month before.
Looking ahead, the economic data on the day will see the release of the U.S. factory orders report. Economists forecast a modest pick up of 0.3% on the month after factory orders fell 2.1% in the month before.
The Eurozone’s sentix investor confidence will be coming out with forecasts showing a modest improvement on the index to -1.1.
