Not all job figures are bad. Weekly jobless claims hit 281K – it is a rise in comparison to last week, but better than expected. In addition, the 4 week moving average is at the lowest since June 2000. It stands on 282K. Continued claims stand at 2.34 million.
The markets lack a strong immediate reaction. Update: the dollar is stronger in a belated reaction.
The weekly US unemployment claims were expected to bounce back to 283K after an impressive 268K last week )before revisions). The revision brought it down to 267K.
The US dollar was sliding from the highs it reached after the FOMC minutes. EUR/USD was trading around 1.0775 just before the publication.
The Fed’s minutes from the March meeting showed that some wanted a hike in June. This pushed the dollar higher, even though everybody knows that there are hawks on the board. There are also doves calling for a hike only in 2016.
Even more so, these minutes are from before the Fed an everybody else became aware of the poor jobs report for March. Since Friday’s release, Fed officials took note, said they were disappointed and also said it would impact their decisions.
On a brighter note, the Fed’s favorite jobs measure, JOLTs job openings, actually came out better than expected for the month of February.
