Forex Flash: US NFP may surprise on the upside, at 175K in February – TD Securities

US nonfarm payrolls are the highligh of the day and consensus is looking for a 163K gain in February, essentially the same as the 157K reading in January. “TD Securities analysts are calling for a slightly higher 175K, essentially on top of the 6m trend”, wrote analyst Alvin Pontoh. “This would be consistent with the encouraging tone in the US data seen during the past few weeks, which has consistently surprised to the upside”, he added.

Mar 8, 2013

Forex: EUR/USD revisits 1.3100 ground on European opening

As the market enters the European session, the EUR/USD is revisiting the 1.3100 ground after finding support at 1.3080. The pair remains “red” on the day but losses are close to being fully erased.

Commodities Brief – Precious metals trade sideways ahead of US payrolls, crude oil consolidates above 91.00

Gold prices have traded in a rather confined range Friday (1575.85 – 1580.05) as investors are seemingly content to wait-and-see the impending results of the Nonfarm Payrolls later today in the United States at 13:30 GMT. On the heels of dual announcements out of both the ECB and BoE, which abstained from any mention of additional stimulus measures, the yellow metal found itself trending lower. At the time of writing gold is trading at USD $1578.62 per oz., technically well positioned for a movement higher (on the caveat of optimistic US data), as its presently operating above its 20, 50, and 200-day SMA.