US: Expect a 170,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls - HSBC

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

HSBC’s analysts are out with the much-awaited preview of the US non-farm payrolls data, which will be reported later on Friday at 1330 GMT.

Key Quotes:

“There was a larger-than-usual drop in average temperatures across the country in early January, which may have dampened job creation for the month. Overall, we expect a 170,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls, as underlying momentum in the labor market still appears to be healthy.

The unemployment rate fell to a cycle low of 4.1% last October, down from 4.7% at the end of 2016. Over the past three months, unemployment has been steady at 4.1%. We think the unemployment rate could fall to a new low of 4.0% in January.

We expect that average hourly earnings rose just 0.1% m-o-m in January, with the softness partly reflecting pay period calendar quirks. We look for the y-o-y rate to stay at 2.5%, but there is some risk it could fall to 2.4% depending on rounding.”

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.

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