Forexlive Americas FX news wrap 4 Jun: JOLTs job openings fall to lowest since Feb 2021 | Forexlive
The JOLTs job openings data today although old news as it is for April, continues to paint a weakening picture for the jobs market (lowest since February 2021). The US jobs report will be announced on Friday. Markets are sensitive to weakening trends in employment.
The JOLTs number showed openings fell to 8.059M vs 8.355M estimate. On Friday, the US non-farm jobs are forecast to come in at 185K. That comes after a weaker than expected number last months at 175K
Yields moved lower for the fourth consecutive day. After double-digit points yesterday, the new yield fell another 7.2 basis points to 4.329% today. Last Wednesday the yield reached 4.64% before rotating lower (down 32 basis points). The markets seem to be tilting toward something weaker on Friday.
Looking at the yield curve today:
- 2 year yield 4.774%, -4.3 basis points
- 5-year yield 4.346%, -7.0 basis points
- 10 year yield 4.327%, -7.4 basis points
- 30-year yield 4.475%, 7.5 basis points.
Despite the run higher in yields, the US dollar was mixed today.
The USD moved higher vs the AUD, CAD and NZD as commodities moved lower pushing those commodity focused currencies versus the USD lower.
- The price of oil is down from $80.60 on Wednesday of last week. The price today reached $72.48. That’s a decline of over 10% in five trading days.
- Copper prices have also started to move lower and is down -12.51% from its peak back on May 20th
- Silver prices tumbled -4.16% today to $21.48. It reached a high in May of $32.51 and is down -9.6% .
- Gold is down 5.48% since peaking on May 20
The USD did fall vs the JPY today after the Bank of Japan officials said that they might look to lower bond buying, and rates may need to go higher as well. That helped to weaken the USDJPY (stronger JPY) and all the JPY crosses today, The USD also fell vs the CHF as the USDCHF retraced back to the March 21 levels just before the Swiss National Bank surprise interest rate cut.
Below is a snapshot of the strongest vs the weakest of the major currencies as the NY sessions winds down for the day.
The strongest to the weakest.
The US stocks did rebound modestly vs the major indices today.
- Dow, up 0.36%
- S&P, up 0.15%
- Nasdaq, up 0.17%
However, the small-cap Russell 2000 fell by -1.25% as investor fear growth vs the benefits of lower rates for that index.
Tomorrow the ADP job will be released at 8:15 AM ET with expectations of 173K. At 9:45 AM ET, the Bank of Japan is expected coverage by 25 basis points (80% chance of a cut). At 10:30 AM ET, Tiff Macklem will be holding a press conference. Services PMI data will be announced at 10 AM with focus on the employment component (along with prices).