The US Dollar was under pressure and trading close to a 3-week trough in early trade in Asia. FX traders are waiting to see what the US Labor Department will report about October's private sector new hires. In the latest forecasts, non-farms payrolls are expected to show a significant decline for the month at 89,000 new jobs, down from 136,000 in September; the unemployment rate is also expected to rise to 3.6%. On a positive note, analysts and economists have predicted that average hourly earnings will show an increase to 3%, up from, 2.9% last month. Any disappointment in the figures is likely to weigh even more heavily on the greenback as traders ponder the Fed's likely next rate adjustment.
In Tokyo, as of 10:07 am, the USD/JPY pair was trading at 107.9610 Yen, a loss of 0.0518% and moving away from the session low of 107.881 Yen. The GBP/USD was trading at $1.2952, up 0.1965%, while the EUR/USD was higher at $1.1157, a gain of 0.0439%.
US Manufacturing Surveys Eyed
Besides the labor data, FX traders will be watching for the latest news on the all-important US manufacturing sector. Two separate PMI surveys are due out later today, one from Markit Surveys and the other from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Analysts are predicting that the ISM survey, the most important of the two and the one which is considered a market-mover, is likely to show an improvement in the reading to 48.9, up from 47.8, yet still below the expansionary threshold of 50.0. Meanwhile, the Markit survey is expected to be unchanged at 51.5.