US Dollar, S&P 500, US Rates Whipsaw After Mixed NFP Report

USD, NFP Price Analysis & News

US NFP -140k vs Exp. 71k, Prior Reading Revised Higher
Unemployment Rate Remains Steady
US Dollar Whipsaws

NFP Mixed as Headline Misses While Unemployment Rates Steadies

A weaker than expected NFP headline with job losses at 140k, against expectations of a 71k jobs increase. However, in light of the surprise contraction in the ADP figures earlier this week and with the ISM Services PMI Employment subcomponent moving back into contractionary territory, the weaker than expected NFP headline is not too surprising and largely reaffirms the slowing momentum in the Labour market as lockdown measures are renewed. That said, what had been encouraging in the report was the upward revision to the prior at 336k from 245k, while the unemployment rate remained at 6.7%, beating expectations for a slight rise to 6.8%. Overall, the NFP report is somewhat mixed.

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Choppy Price Action Following Mixed Report

As a result, the US Dollar whipsawed as a slight bid on the headline had been quickly retraced amid the steady components in the report, before extending lower. Similar price action had been observed in US treasury yields with the 10yr briefly breaking above 1.1%, which in turn sees gold prices remaining under pressure. Across the equity space, the S&P 500 saw an initial dip, although quickly recovered, given that the softer data will reinforce the case for the new Biden administration (from Jan 20th) to announce a fresh stimulus package in a prompt manner.