On Wednesday, the ADP released its report regarding the US private sector employment status which showed growth last month, slightly over the expected value. March employment figure came in at 200K jobs, over the estimated 194K, but February’s reading was revised lower to 205K from the previous 214K. Drilling-in, the report also reveals details regarding the fact that 86K jobs were added in the small business sector, 75K in the mid-sector businesses and 39K in large companies. The service sector is higher with 191K workplaces while the goods-producing sector rose with 9K jobs. EUR/USD cross breached strong resistance of 1.1375 (2016 highs) and it could have a hard time passing through 1.1500 as the whole 1.1400-1.1500 area is filled with weekly resistances.
On Thursday, the GBP/USD major climbed to fresh daily highs around the 1.4400 thresholds as information regarding the latest UK GDP (Gross Domestic Figure) were revealed. The pair’s trend started climbing once the UK GDP figures surprised the markets to the upside by showing better than expected results regarding the expansion rate of the economy. The annualized growth pace came out at 2.1% compared to an expected 1.9%, while the inter-quarter figure printed 0.6% versus an expected 0.5% in the October – December 2015 quarter. The UK Current Account Deficit seems to be at 32.7 billion pounds in the same quarter, over the forecasted 21.1 billion pounds and close to record highs. Due to these figures, the spot managed to get out of the 1.4330 area and push forward in the 1.4400 neighborhood right after the release.
According to Eurostat, the flash HICP (Eurozone Harmonized Index of Consumer) inflation went down to an annualized rate of 0.1% in the month of March, being in line with estimations. February’s figure remains unrevised at -0.2%. The core inflation rate (excluding food and energy) should come out 1.0% on a yearly basis in March; Eurostat is saying, above February’s 0.8% yearly rate. Since 2013, the core inflation is not even near the 2% ECB (European Central Bank) target. As a response to the low readings, the ECB raised the monthly bond purchase limit from 60 million EUR to 80 million EUR on last Friday’s meeting.