Disappointing economic data out of the US which showed a decline in the key manufacturing sector hinted of a possibly significant slowdown of the US economy during the first quarter. That raised speculation that the Federal Reserve might delay a rate hike resulted in broad declines for the US Dollar. Now, all eyes are firmly focused on tomorrow’s release of non-farms payrolls which analysts are forecasting will show 244K new jobs added in March; however, Wednesday’s release of ADP labor data, used to gauge the NFP, disappointed, with only 189K new jobs added against expectations of 225K.
As reported at 9:13 am (GMT) in London, the EUR/USD was trading higher at $1.0820, dipping from the session high of $1.0845. The GBP/USD was trading at $1.4795, near the low end of the trading range of $1.4792 and $1.4866.
Pound under Pressure after PMI Disappoints
The British Pound is currently under some pressure after the release earlier of the March PMI Construction report which showed an unexpected drop in the reading from 60.1 in February to 57.8, against expectations of only a slight decline to 59.5. The EUR/GBP pair is currently trading high at 0.7314 Pence, only 10 pips from the session’s high.