UK jobs preview: Headline wage growth to hold steady at 2.8% - TDS

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

Analysts at TDS offer insights on what to expect from the UK labour market report scheduled for release at 09.30GMT later today.

Key Quotes:

“We’re in line with consensus for today’s labour market data in looking for the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 4.8% and for headline wage growth to hold steady at 2.8%, both for the month of December. While it’s only the 6th line item in Bloomberg, one thing we’ll be keeping a closer eye on than usual is 3m/3m employment growth, which dipped below zero the last two months.”

“We’ve seen short-lived dips into negative territory before over the last few years while all other indications were pointing to a steady or improving labour market (May-June 2015 and Feb-March 2013) so this may be more of a statistical blip than anything particularly nefarious. But it’s certainly worth watching more closely, given that a deterioration in the labour market is one of the biggest risk factors we see as something that could push the BoE toward easing further.”

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

EUR/USD climbs to daily highs near 1.1820

EUR/USD now picks up pace and advances to the area of daily peaks north of the 1.1800 barrier at the end of the week. The pair’s decent move higher comes against the backdrop of a generalised lack of direction in the FX galaxy and the mild offered stance in the US Dollar.

GBP/USD trims losses, retests 1.3460

After briefly challenging its key 200-day SMA near 1.3440, GBP/USD now manages to regain some balance and revisit the 1.3460 zone on Friday. Cable’s pullback comes as the selling pressure on the Greenback gathers traction, reigniting some recovery in the risk-linked space.

Gold flirts with four-week highs past $5,200

Gold extends its rebound, climbing for a third consecutive session and pushing back above the $5,200 mark per troy ounce on Friday. The move higher continues to draw support from lingering geopolitical tensions and the ongoing uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, both of which are keeping safe-haven demand firmly in play.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple consolidate with short-term cautious bullish bias

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple are consolidating near key technical areas on Friday, showing mild signs of stabilization after recent volatility. BTC holds above $67,000 despite mild losses so far this week, while ETH hovers around $2,000 after a rejection near its upper consolidation boundary.

Changing the game: International implications of recent tariff developments

The Supreme Court ruling on International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs provides limited relief for the rest of the world, with weighted average tariff rates modestly lower.

Starknet unveils strkBTC, shielded Bitcoin transactions on Ethereum Layer 2

Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, today announced strkBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin asset that introduces optional shielding while preserving full DeFi composability.