FOMC Member Dudley addressed the US today and proudly underlined the strength of the US labour market. He covered the last few months’ employments data which demonstrated that the jobs market has experienced growth which had ‘’Helped allay concerns that arose earlier in the year’’
Pointing reference to the earlier New York Fed research he stated ‘For the first time in quite a while, gains in the middles-wage jobs actually outnumbered the gains in higher and lower wages nationwide’
The statement followed data releases from the US which included Philly Fed, which is a primary indicator for business market condition as it typically portrays spending, investment and hiring trends. The figure was expected to reach 1.4 however surpassed expectations reaching 2.0 a great improvement on last month’s reading of -2.9.
Following the Philly Fed manufacturing index saw the release of the unemployment claims data which were predicted to show that 269K individuals filed for unemployment in the last week. Claims had decreased from 266k to 262K beating the predicted number.
Following the announcements and FOMC member Dudley’s statement the S&P5500, Nasdaq and the Dow spiked.However EUR/USD weakened.
GBP/USD gained earlier in the session opening at around 1.3062 rising to above 1.31 for the majority of the day following the UK’s extremely positive Retails sales. The data was anticipated to show a slight gain moving from -0.9% in July to a positive number of 0.1%. The data added dramatically to sterling strength and GBP/EUR reached 1.1635 briefly in the session following the 1.4% growth.
The positive retails figure which hadn’t been surpassed since 2002 were put down to warmer weather and the purchasing of summer clothing. Although many doubt that the retail growth will continue. A conclusion which is supported by growing inflation, due to weaker GBP which will in turn household wages won’t go as far.
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