USD

The US dollar regained ground against its forex peers on Friday, thanks to much stronger than expected jobs data.

The US economy added 287K jobs in June, outpacing the projected 175K gain, while the previous reading was downgraded from 38K to 11K. Average hourly earnings was lower than expected with a mere 0.1% uptick while the unemployment rate rose from 4.7% to 4.9%. There are no reports due from the US economy today but FOMC member George has a testimony lined up.

EUR

The euro was mostly weaker on Friday, as medium-tier euro zone data fell short of expectations. The German trade surplus narrowed from 24.1 billion EUR to 22.2 billion EUR while French industrial production showed a 0.5% drop versus the projected 0.4% decline. Only the Italian industrial production report is due today. 

GBP

The pound struggled to hold its ground on Friday as selling pressure seemed exhausted. There were no major reports out of the UK on Friday and traders continued to focus on Brexit-related updates, the latest of which included a rejection to redo the EU referendum vote. There are no reports due from the UK economy today. 

CHF

The franc was mostly weaker against its peers since the threat of SNB intervention weighed on the currency’s gains. The Swiss jobless rate improved to 3.3% while the previous month’s figure enjoyed a positive revision. There are no reports due from the Swiss economy today. 

JPY

The yen regained some ground against its higher-yielding counterparts but was weaker to the dollar after the NFP release. Earlier today, Japan’s core machinery orders report printed a worse than expected 1.4% slide versus the estimated 3.1% gain. Preliminary machine tool orders data is due next. 

Commodity Currencies (AUD, NZD, CAD)

The comdolls put up a strong fight against the dollar and most of their currency counterparts at the end of last week. Canada saw a 0.7K reduction in jobs but its jobless rate fell from 6.9% to 6.8% instead of rising to the estimated 7.0% figure. Over the weekend, Chinese CPI and PPI indicated weaker price pressures. No other reports are due from the comdoll economies today but Australian election updates could push AUD pairs around. 

By Kate Curtis from Trader’s Way