The US non-farm payrolls continues to run hot in October, with not much to really criticise about the Friday data here. Yet, broader markets were stubborn to ignore it as stocks held firm and that pinned the dollar lower as the week came to a close. The wild swings in relation to the data have been long gone but these days, so is the importance – to a certain extent.
As the Fed maintains its hawkish resolve, labour market conditions remain key but so far there hasn’t been a major change in the narrative on the jobs front. That in turn sees market expectations hold as it is i.e. nothing new to really talk about. Instead, all the attention now is on inflation and this week’s US CPI data on Thursday is essentially the new NFP report.
That is now the biggest data release on the economic calendar and we will get two of that (including the one this week) before the next FOMC meeting in December.