With US employment data looming in the not so far future as well as the three day weekend in the US, markets were calm and collected in range bound trading to end the week in Asia. Better than anticipated US unemployment data, (472K vs. 476K) and pending home sales data, (+5.2% vs. -1.3%) helped to boost risk and keep stocks lofted for the second day in a row. This mood carried over to Asia where stocks had modest gains, and risk remained level in a session that was almost sleep inducing as is the case ahead of big US data releases. Tomorrow’s Non Farm Payroll data is forecast to come in at -101K jobs lost, down from last month’s -131K lost. The unemployment rate is projected to increase from 9.5% to 9.6% as well.
USD/JPY saw an 84.25 to 84.40 range for the better part of the day, to the extent that a betting man could almost guarantee that the pair would be in the 84.30’s every time you checked the rates today. The EUR/USD followed the same path, sticking to a 25 pip range between 1.2810 and 1.2835 during leisurely trading. The yen crosses began the day riding the wave of optimism caused by earlier US data, but that wave ebbed, and the crosses were paring gains by the end of the session. The Australian dollar was able to peak over the 0.9110 level but the move was fleeting as the pair ended the day slightly off of 0.9075 lows.
All in all, an unremarkable and yet predictable day in Asia with the heavy hitting US employment data that lays ahead. US Non-Farm Payroll as well as the unemployment rate are due at 12:30GMT. Have a nice weekend and holiday if reading from the US….
