Dollar strengthens after ADP jobs forecast beats expectations
Thursday, January 3, 2008
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The dollar rose after both the ADP forecast for US jobs growth and the weekly jobless claims came in better than expected, suggesting the labour market is not suffering as much as feared.
The ADP forecast was for a 40,000 rise in December, above expectations for a 30,000 gain. Although the ADP number is often volatile, it is likely to improve expectations ahead of the release of the actual statistic tomorrow.
Meanwhile, jobless claims for the week ending Dec 29 were down 21,000 to 336,000, better than the 345,000 claims economists were predicting.
The data gave a boost to the dollar, which had today been suffering after the release of dovish Federal Reserve minutes last night suggested more rate cuts are likely in the US.
The dollar jumped mostly against the yen, reaching 109.30 yen from 108.30, and also pushed the euro back down to 1.4710 usd from 1.4770.