U.S. Market January 8, 2001

The U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls number was released this morning and showed an increase of 105000, within earlier expectations, but some actors were relieved as post rate cut expectations existed that the number should come out much weaker than previously expected. The Unemployment number showed a steady 4.0 percent. Initially the USD rallied on the news and EURUSD sold off from 0.9540 to a low of 0.9470. The USDCHF meanwhile rallied from 1.6030 to touch slightly above 1.6100. It did not take long however before the last month trend continued with the Euro regaining control and subsequently EURUSD surged all day to close at 0.9580. Even more impressive was the EURJPY move, as the cross managed to close as high as 111.70, and USDJPY closed at 116.55 after a brief revisit to the 116.00 area earlier on. USDCHF closed at 1.5980 only supported by the EURCHF cross. GBPUSD followed the EURUSD most of the day but was somewhat halted on the upside as the EURGBP cross managed to close as high as 0.6375. The GBPUSD range was 1.4970 to 1.5040. AUDUSD and NZDUSD closed at new impressive highs, 0.5720 and 0.4530 respectively.

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