US Dollar Rises with Employment & Services Index

The US dollar surged today, experiencing a very good beginning of the year as the macroeconomic reports post good results virtually every day. Today we had the reports about employment and services industries in the US, which confirmed the positive trend.

The ADP National Employment Report showed that private-sector employment increased by 297,000 in December from the revised November increase of 92,000. The analysts predicted the increase to only 101,000. The Report On Business of the Institute for Supply Management showed that the economic activity in the non-manufacturing sector grew in December for the 12th consecutive month, rising to 57.1 percent from the November reading of 55.0 percent. The index was supposed to rise only slightly to 55.6 percent, according to the experts’ estimates.

As a result of the positive macroeconomic data the Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus the currencies of the six biggest US trading partners, climbed as much as 1.1 percent to 80.353. The economists say that the positive data may boost not only the US dollar, but other North American currencies as well.

EUR/USD slumped from the opening price of 1.3307 to 1.3142 today as of 19:47 GMT. GBP/USD traded at 1.5482, declining from the opening level of 1.5582. USD/JPY jumped from 82.05 to 83.33.

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