Daily FX Market Roundup 06.03.2021
By Kathy Lien, Managing Director of FX Strategy for BK Asset Management
The U.S. dollar traded sharply higher against all of the major currencies on Thursday with USD/JPY closing above 110 for the first time since April which is a sign that investors are positioning for a strong report. Last month’s jobs number was abysmal with U.S. companies adding only 266K new workers. Economists are looking for job growth to more than double in May but the problem is that other U.S. indicators favor a softer report.
Although weekly jobless claims fell below 400K for the first time since the pandemic began and ADP reported a very strong increase in private payrolls, continuing claims ticked up and the acceleration in service sector activity was not accompanied by stronger job growth. Instead, the employment component of non-manufacturing ISM dropped to 55.3 from 58.8. Challenger reported more layoffs while consumer confidence declined according to both t