EUR/USD Continues to Rally After Jobs Report

EUR/USD Continues to Rally After Jobs Report

The euro resumed its ascent higher and spot crude oil pricesmoved to a 2.5 year high following today’s US Non-Farm Employment Change that showed the US economy added 192K jobs and the unemployment rate fell below 9%.

Following yesterday’s trading where the ECB all but solidified its intention to raise interest rates at its next meeting in April, today the US jobs report showed slightly better than expected numbers. In February, the US economy added 192K new jobs. Adding to the upbeat release, the January numbers were revised higher to 63K from 33K. Labor economists expected the US economy to add 191K new jobs last month. While the base number was close to market forecasts, the unemployment rate surprised to the upside, coming in at 8.9% on expectations for 9.1%.

At the end of the trading day, the EUR/USD was higher at 1.3985 from an opening price of 1.3954. The USD/CHF was down at 0.9255 from 0.9323.The USD/JPY traded as high as 83.06 before falling back to its opening day price of 82.30.

The price of spot crude oil shot up on renewed fighting in Libya with the price rising to its highest level since September of 2008 at $104.88 where the commodity looks to close on its high.

Despite the mixed results for the jobs report, shares on Wall Street slipped with the Dow Jones Industrials Average falling 0.79%, erasing much of yesterday’s gains.

While the jobs report was keyed in on today, the highlight of the week and perhaps the year was yesterday’shawkish comments by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet. Europe’s central banker solidified most traders’ expectations for an interest rate increase in April, spurring strong bids for the euro. The 17-nation currency looks to continue its gains next week with the EUR/USD set to close above the 200-week moving average at 1.3960. Next week’s target for the pair looks to be the October 2010 high at 1.4860 with resistance coming in at this week’s low of 1.3710.