Market News

The U.S. dollar was set for its biggest one-day gain against a basket of major currencies so far this year after a strong U.S. July payrolls report and comments from National Economic Council director Gary Cohn about lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate.

U.S. Treasury yields rose on Friday after data showed that U.S. employers hired more workers than expected in July, while wage growth also met economists’ expectations.

Canada’s trade gap widened in June as a drop in energy shipments pulled exports back from a record high but sustained jobs growth in July was enough to keep expectations alive for yet another interest rate increase in the coming months.

Oil prices recouped earlier losses on Friday but remained on track for a weekly decline, weighed down by rising OPEC exports and strong output from the United States.

U.S. employers hired more workers than expected in July and raised their wages.

The dollar, bond yields and U.S. stock futures all rose on Friday, following stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data which also pointed to wage growth picking up in the world’s biggest economy.

Today is another NFP Friday so trading conditions were tight. NZD was broadly higher, though, very likely because of the commodities rally and cautious risk-taking.

We had not one, but TWO policy decisions printed this week. What did the RBA and BOE have to say anyway?

Aussie traders shrugged off the RBA’s jawboning and growth forecast adjustments against Australia’s strong retail sales data.

Asian stocks struggled on Friday after a technology-led drop on Wall Street, while U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar remained under pressure on signs that probes into possible Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections are gathering pace.

Gold on Friday held steady near seven-week highs hit earlier this week, as the dollar eased to hover near multi-month lows ahead of key monthly U.S. non-farm payrolls data later in the day.

The dollar struggled near a 2-1/2-year low against the euro and a seven-week trough versus the yen on Friday.

Dollar traders must be feeling the jitters ahead of the NFP release as they refrained from taking huge bets on the currency, leaving the yen to take its share of risk-off flows.

A gauge of world stocks declined as Wall Street dipped on Thursday, although European shares rallied, while sterling hit a nine-month low against the euro after the Bank of England’s policymakers kept interest rates unchanged.

The Canadian dollar weakened to a two-week low against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday.

Brazilian stocks dipped on Thursday as traders booked profits from a recent rally, though increased confidence in prospects for structural reforms in Latin America’s largest economy helped to curb losses.

The dollar fell against the euro on Thursday after softer-than-expected U.S. services sector data.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell on Thursday, weighed down by Amazon.com, Apple and other top-shelf technology stocks, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up to a seventh straight record high.

The Bank of England kept interest rates at a record low again on Thursday and cut its forecasts for growth and wages as it warned that Brexit was weighing on the economy.

Oil prices rose on Thursday, with signs of a tightening U.S. market spurring cautious buying by investors despite high crude supplies from producer club OPEC.