This morning’s economic news pertaining to the United States has been rather complicated. Because of this, we would like to issue a word of caution: bizarre US labor data like this can have odd effects on price action for major pairs. On one hand, Non-Farm Employment Change (NFP, for Non-Farm Payrolls; a key gauge of private sector labor market activity) estimates for November came in far from strong. Released at 8:15 am ET by Automatic Data Processing, Inc., a meager 127,000 jobs were projected to have been added to the US economy over the latest month, a far cry from the 196,000 that had been forecast. This implies a cooling labor market, which is bearish for USD.
On the other hand, however, the latest findings in the Bureau of Labor Statistics JOLTS jobs report, published this morning at 10 am ET, has seemingly contradictory implications: an impressive 10.33 million job openings remain in the US, still almost double the number of unemployed individuals looking for work. Coupled with better-than-expected quarter-over-quarter real GDP growth, with the latest numbers clocking in at a 2.9% expansion this morning, and a smaller decline in homes sales than anticipated, this news paints a different picture of the US labor market and economy, one that is still red hot. This is quite bullish news for USD.
What to Make of This?
While it does appear that more reports are signaling USD bullishness than bearishness, we can also wait for further confirmation about US economic strength over the next few days. For example, tomorrow morning the latest changes in the US Core PCE Price Index month-over-month will be made public; this is a key fundamental indicator for those trading USD, as it is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation. Likewise, Friday morning will be a pivotal day in the financial markets, since the official new NFP numbers, wage growth data month-over-month, and new US unemployment rate will be published too, all at 8:30 am ET. Between all these crucial updates on fundamentals, traders will have much to chew on, far more than just today’s confusing data.
3 Potential Pairs to Buy
According to the EdgeFinder, A1 Trading’s market scanner, EUR/USD and USD/CAD remain the optimal pairs to monitor right now for opportunities to go long on USD. Because we just explored their respective charts in Monday’s article, let’s take this time to examine the EdgeFinder’s highest rated pairs to buy, which all happen to be NZD pairs. A strong currency in its own right, the New Zealand Dollar is well worth focusing on as we await further USD developments. Without further ado, here are the three pairs that rank highest on the EdgeFinder’s score summary chart, along with their respective ratings, biases, and corresponding charts.
1) NZD/CAD – Receives a ‘6’ Rating, or a ‘Strong Buy’ Signal
2) NZD/USD – Receives a ‘5’ Rating, or a ‘Buy’ Signal
3) NZD/JPY – Receives a ‘5’ Rating, or a ‘Buy’ Signal
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