Last week was Non-Farm Payrolls week and it was yet another highly anticipated data release. In the end, the headline number was weaker than expected but that apparently didn’t seem to be enough to take the Fed off its tapering course. The RBNZ became the second major central bank to hike rates as expected, and there were no major surprises to shock markets either way.
The US Dollar finally took a breather after a few strong weeks, with the NFP reading putting a brake on its appreciation. The Euro failed to make any progress, hindered mainly by the terrible German economic data releases which included factory orders and industrial production was huge misses. The Pound had a decent week as bets start favouring an earlier rate hike by the Bank of England. With the strength in inflation and wage growth running past expectations, it seems that the BoE has very few options left. Commodity currencies did well on the whole, as oil continued its impressive bull run.
