EURUSD Hits New Lows Ahead Of Non-Farm Payrolls

 

Market Brief

EURUSD hit fresh lows of 1.2764 in the Asian session, but volatility has been muted as markets await the upcoming non-farm payrolls release. Asian equity indices have struggled today with the Shanghai Composite the lone index managing to trade higher.

Yesterday, under fire SNB Governor Philipp Hildebrand held a press conference in Zurich; with the aim of addressing media uproar that his wife made bets on the Swiss currency last year, shortly before the SNB conducted its massive EURCHF intervention. It is alleged that bets totalling $1.6m were placed by Hildebrand family members at a time when the central bank chief was spearheading a fight against franc strength. Not much was said about the SNB’s decision-making or plans for the EURCHF floor at the session however, and so the currency market impact was non-existent.

Today’s data calendar is packed with major releases out of the Eurozone, including November retail sales and unemployment rate, plus the December final consumer confidence and industrial confidence surveys. However, the US non-farm payrolls are likely to take centre stage with the markets expecting a reading of 150k after the previous month’s 120k print. The ADP report yesterday smashed expectations at 325k (compared to consensus estimates of 178k), but this may not be a good indicator of a big non-farm payrolls today. The method by which the ADP report accounts for end of year payroll records can lead to a distortedly large figure in December (which is what appears to have happened last year), and so the expectations for today’s release are unlikely to have shifted significantly higher.