EURUSD Movement
On Friday, EUR rose 0.49% against the USD and closed at 1.3672. The US Dollar gave up ground against the Euro, after a report revealed that the US economy created 74,000 new jobs in December, significantly lower than market expectations for an addition of 197,000 new jobs and following a revised increase of 241,000 jobs in the previous month. The unemployment rate in the US declined to 6.7% in December, defying market expectations for the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at previous month’s level of 7.0%, essentially due to a decline in participation rate. Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President, Jeffrey Lacker, in a speech to a business group, highlighted the possibility for the central bank to discuss another $10 billion reduction in the pace of monthly bond buying at its next meeting on January 28-29. Separately, President of St. Louis Fed, James Bullard, stated that he is “disinclined” to focus on December’s jobs data alone to determine the pace of the Fed’s stimulus measures. He added that he would rather focus on the drop in the US unemployment rate last month, than on the dismal non-farm payrolls data.
Meanwhile, in the Euro-zone, an official report showed that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose 0.1% (QoQ) in the third quarter, broadly in-line with market expectations and compared to a 0.3% (QoQ) rise registered in the preceding quarter. Another report revealed that industrial production in France rose more-than-expected 1.3% (YoY) in November, compared to a 0.5% fall recorded in October.
In the Asian session, at GMT0400, the pair is trading at 1.3683, with the EUR trading 0.08% higher from Friday’s close.
The pair is expected to find support at 1.3607, and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1.3530. The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1.3724, and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1.3764.
Amid lack of major economic releases from the Euro-zone economy today, traders are expected to keep a close tab of global economic news for further guidance in the pair.
The currency pair is trading above its 20 Hr and 50 Hr moving averages.
