US Non-Farm Payrolls employment data will be the main event for today. Markets are expecting 1550k job growth in August, slightly down from July’s 1763k. Unemployment rate is expected to drop to 9.9%, down from 10.2%. Looking at other employment related data, ADP private employment was a big disappointment with just 428k growth. ISM Manufacturing employment edged higher by 2.1 pts to 46.4, but stayed in contraction. ISM Non-Manufacturing employment rose notably by 5.8 pts to 47.9, but also stayed in contraction. Jobless claims was a positive development though, with four-week moving average down from 1.34m to 992k.
Dollar’s reaction to NFP data is relatively uncertain. Dollar index’s down trend since March’s spike looks overstretched, with clear bullish convergence condition in daily MACD and RSI. Yet there has been no follow-through buying in the multiple rebound attempts in recent weeks. Break of 93.47 resistance is needed to be first sign of short term bottoming. In that case, we’d likely see a test on 44 day EMA (now at 94.43) at least.
