USD: initial jobless claims hit lowest level since December 1969

Trade tensions are certainly not (yet) having a negative impact on US employment data, with yesterday’s initial jobless claims release hitting its lowest figure since December 1969. In the week ending 1 September 2018, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefit fell by 10,000 to hit 203,000. The markets had expected a slight increase to 214,000.

However, only 163,000 private sector jobs were created in August, which was some way below the 190,000 expected. This is quite a drop from the previous month’s 217,000 and could signal that non-farm payrolls will miss expectations later today. The dollar lost some ground against sterling and traded sideways against the euro throughout the day. Trade tensions continue to support the dollar as investors look to safe havens. The recent sell off of emerging currencies appears to be rebounding if yesterday is anything to go by, with the Argentinian peso and South African rand gaining some ground.

Composite and services PMI were slightly below expectations but both sectors appear to be performing robustly. Today’s highlights include the aforementioned non-farm payrolls and the unemployment rate for August.

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