This morning's non-farm payrolls report was neither bad news or good news. US companies added 51,000 jobs in the month of Sept, but the payrolls number for the month of August was revised up 60k from 128k to 188k.
If you tacked that difference back onto September payrolls, it puts us at 111k, which is then much closer to the market's forecast. The dollar has rallied on the back of the release as such a weak number is bound for revision. In addition, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6 percent from 4.7 percent. The average hourly earnings growth accelerated but less than the market expected. The confusion around the number should keep further dollar gains limited. For traders, this was the worst case scenario - a blow out number with mixed details that fails to clear the air and leaves us still trapped in a the EUR/USD's 1.2625-1.2800 September trading ranges.
Al Bawaba
