US Dollar Drops, Gold Pops After Soft NFP Report
2021-02-05 13:40:00
Justin McQueen,
Analyst
US NFP 49k vs Exp. 50k, Prior Reading Revised Lower
Unemployment Rate Drops 0.4ppts to 6.3%
NFP Mixed as Headline Misses, Revision Downgraded, While Unemployment Rates Beats
A weaker than expected NFP headline at 49k, slightly missing expectations of 50k. Alongside this, the revision to the prior month had been disappointing with a downgrade to -227k from -140k. That said, the unemployment rate had printed notably lower than expectations at 6.3% vs 6.7%, which had been slightly helped by a lower labour force participation rate. Overall, the initial take is that the NFP report is slightly weaker and given the very soft December revision this is likely to reinforce the need for a sizeable fiscal stimulus package as well as a dovish Fed.