Pound Sterling trades firmly against Greenback on slowing US job demand

Written by:

  • The Pound Sterling rises to near 1.3500 against the US Dollar amid the US job market slowdown.
  • The US government shutdown could escalate already weakening job conditions.
  • BoE’s Breeden argues in favour of unwinding monetary policy restrictiveness.

The Pound Sterling (GBP) ticks up to near 1.3500 against the US Dollar (USD) during the European trading session on Thursday. The GBP/USD pair edges higher as the US Dollar (USD) remains on the backfoot, with the United States (US) job market slowing down and the government entering a shutdown.

At the time of writing, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the Greenback’s value against six major currencies, trades vulnerable near the weekly low around 97.50.

On Wednesday, the US ADP Employment Change report showed that the private sector labor force witnessed a reduction of 32K employees in September. Economists had anticipated that 50K fresh workers would be added in that period. Additionally, the report revealed that 3K employees were laid off in August compared to the fresh addition of 54K workers initially reported.

Signs of a cooling US job market have boosted expectations for more interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve (Fed) in the remainder of the year. According to the CME FedWatch tool, traders have almost fully priced in that the Fed will cut interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) to the 3.75%-4.00% range in the policy meeting later this month.

Leave a comment