North American Summary and Highlights 2 May

North American session

The US non-farm payroll was stronger than expected with a 177k April increase, though 58k in negative back month revisions weighed against the headline surprise, and average hourly earnings were weaker than expected with a rise of 0.2%. Unemployment was unchanged at 4.2% as expected.  

While UST yields rose significantly and equities advanced, the FX response to the data was limited. Mid-morning did see some USD slippage, but this was largely reversed, with USD/JPY slightly firmer near 145 and EUR/USD slightly weaker near 1.1310. The USD did however see marginal slippage versus AUD and CAD.  

European morning session 

The USD fell back through the European morning, with EUR/USD rising 40 pips to 1.1350, and USD/JPY falling 70 pips to 144.50. AUD/USD also gained 20 pips, but GBP and CAD failed to participate, and were little changed against the USD.  

The EUR may have benefited from some upward revisions in the April manufacturing PMI data, with the Eurozone PMI up to 49.0 from the provisional 48.7. Eurozone final CPI was also a little above consensus at 2.2%, with core at 2.7% against a 2.5% consensus. There was also a sharp dip in the Swiss manufacturing PMI, which hit its lowest since August, but EUR/CHF was weaker falling sharply towards the end of the session, hitting a low of 0.9312 before bouncing.