The USD is under pressure, but not going to give up easily. Overview for 04.02.2019

The major currency pair is consolidating at the beginning of the week; investors are analyzing the statistics and the Fed policymakers’ comments. 

EURUSD is stable on Monday. The current quote for the instrument is 1.1440.

It looks like there were too much statistics for the USD last Friday. The Unemployment Rate increased up to 4.0% in January after being 3.9% the month before, although the indicator wasn’t expected to change. One of the possible reasons is the longest Government Shutdown in the American history. By the way, the current number is the highest over the last seven months. The Average Hourly Earnings also lost the positive momentum and added only 0.1% m/m in January after expanding by 0.4% m/m in December. 

The Non-Farm Employment Change surprised everyone with fantastic optimism. In January, the indicator was 304K against the expected reading of 165K. The components of the report showed that the major contribution was made by leisure and hospitality, construction, health care, as well as transportation and warehousing. 

Last week, the US Federal Reserve left the key benchmark rate unchanged, but market players continue discussing its outlook. For example, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis James Bullard’s comments said the USA would no longer require rate hikes because the current values of the regulator’s rates were just fine. The pressure of the American regulator is stepping up and may become a leverage over the Fed’s decisions to be made in the future.

Another report published last Friday, the ISM Manufacturing PMI, showed 56.6 points in January after being 54.1 points in the previous month, although it was expected to remain unchanged. The indicator improvement shows a positive momentum in manufacturing, which is a very good signal for the American currency.