Thursday, 6 Jan 2011

Markets Calm Ahead of US Unemployment Figure

The US dollar capped most of its gains earlier today, and for the moment appears to be trading steady against most of its major currency rivals. The markets have calmed down greatly in the last few hours, largely due to investor anticipation regarding this week's US Unemployment Claims figure, set to be released at 13:30 GMT. Currently the EUR/USD is trading just above the 1.3100 level, while the USD/JPY has risen to just past the 83.00 level.

Analysts are predicting today's unemployment figure to come in at around 400K. If the predictions turn out to be true, that would actually represent an increase in unemployment over last week, and may cause the dollar to halt its recent bullish trend. That being said, the unemployment figure has come in better than expected for the last four weeks. Given the recent string of positive news out of the US, it is entirely possible that the figure may come in smaller than forecasted. If so, expect the dollar to increase its recent gains.