Data on the growth of the US labor market could not support the dollar, which rather unexpectedly came under pressure from an external fundamental background. Another escalation of the trade war between the United States and China has mixed all the cards with dollar bulls. After all, at the end of the July Fed meeting, traders had the confidence that the regulator would limit itself to one round of rate cuts, as a precautionary measure. However, after the release of an extremely weak ISM index in the manufacturing sector, as well as after a resonant statement by Donald Trump, concerns about the Fed's next steps returned to the market.
Let me remind you that at the end of last week, the US president promised to introduce an additional 10 percent duty on imports of Chinese goods worth $300 billion starting on September 1, given that Beijing does not agree to conclude a deal with the United States before this deadline. If this scenario is implemented, additional tariffs will cover almost all imports from China. Trump was also outraged by the fact that China refused to comply with the agreements that were reached at the G-20 summit (we are talking about the resumption of purchases of agricultural goods). The fact that Washington, in fact, did not fulfill its part of the agreements (regarding the lifting of sanctions against Huawei), the head of the White House modestly kept silent.
Nevertheless, the fact remains: recent events suggest that the positive results of the G20 summit have been completely offset. The first round of negotiations after the summit was completed ahead of time and without any clear result, whereas a few days later, Trump announced the above ultimatum. Here, even without official comments, it becomes clear that the parties are still defending their positions, despite the formal desire to find a mutually beneficial compromise. Before the start of the negotiations, Trump suggested that the Chinese would deliberately pull time before the next presidential election in the United States (which will take place in November 2020), hoping for a change of power. The most likely candidates from the Democratic Party are really ahead of the current president - at least for today. Therefore, there is certainly some sense in Beijing's actions: why make a knowingly unprofitable deal with Trump, if in a year it will be possible to agree on other conditions with Biden? This is the reason for such haste in Donald's decisions - given the rating gap from the Democrats, he needs a victory in a trade war, the negative consequences of which are felt not only by China and the world economy, but also by the US economy.
Such prospects had a fairly strong pressure on the US currency. Traders again increased the likelihood of another round of rate cuts at one of the autumn meetings (most likely in September), while some analysts do not rule out more radical scenarios - either a one-time rate cut of 50 basis points or a third decline in December. of the year. Such an unexpected reversal of the plot allowed the EUR/USD pair to move away from the level of a multi-year low (1.1026) and demonstrate corrective growth to the level of 1.1117. In general, the dollar index in a few hours of Friday fell from 98.258 to 97.873. The yield on 10-year-old Treasuries has also declined significantly - the indicator has collapsed to almost a three-year low (1.843%).
The market clearly focused on geopolitical events, as it completely ignored one of the key macroeconomic indicators, Nonfarms. Although this release was supposed to support a further rally in the US currency: the US labor market continues to recover, demonstrating the growth of the main components. Thus, the number of people employed in the non-agricultural sector increased by 164,000 (which fully coincided with the forecast), while the unemployment rate remained at a record low of 3.7%. The number of people employed in the manufacturing sector of the economy increased by 16 thousand (a positive trend for the 2nd month in a row). The growth rate of the average hourly wage also pleased investors: in annual terms, the indicator rose to 3.2% (for the first time since April), and in monthly terms, the component rose to 0.3% (at this level, the indicator goes for the third month in a row). Thus, the July data completely offset concerns about the dynamics of growth in the US labor market, although this issue was on the agenda this spring, both among investors and members of the US regulator.
It is likely that after the release of Friday's data, EUR/USD bears would try to enter the ninth figure area or at least try to test a strong support level of 1.0980 (lower Kumo cloud boundary on the monthly chart) - but an unexpected move by the US president ruined the plans of the dollar bulls. When trading was about to close, the pair approached the first resistance level of 1.1120 (Tenkan-sen line on the daily chart), and if the growth of anti-risk sentiment continues, then the bulls will be able to develop further correction - up to the levels of 1.1190 and 1.1220 (middle line BB and Kijun-sen line on D1).
Here it is worth noting that on Friday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has already accused Donald Trump of violating the June agreement with Xi Jinping, promising to use "countermeasures". It is likely that this week we will find out what measures we are talking about. Strengthening the US-China conflict will put pressure on the dollar, since the escalation of trade war is seen by the market through the prism of prospects for further easing of the Fed's monetary policy.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company - www.instaforex.com