Friday, January 29, 2010
The U.S. Dollar is slightly better against a basket of currencies this morning after trading in a tight and narrow range overnight. Trading action was subdued as investors await this
morning’s key U.S. GDP data. The Dollar is trading higher versus the Euro, Yen and Aussie Dollar while weakening against the British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian and New Zealand Dollars. In addition
to the GDP report, traders will also get the chance to react to the Employment Cost Index, Chicago PMI and Consumer Sentiment.
The Employment Cost Index is a measure of total employee compensation costs, including wages and salaries as well as benefits. Since the U.S. economy has become so sensitive to jobs
related data, this report may carry some additional weight today. Last month’s report showed a rise in the index of 0.4%. This month, the range of this report is projected at 0.4% to 1.5% with the
consensus at 0.4. Traders expect to see that continued high employment and salary freezes have kept employment costs soft.
The Chicago PMI is usually a market mover. …
