The much awaited Non-Farm Payrolls report was released on Friday, expanding by 110,000, slightly better than the expected 89,000 and much better than the previous -4,000. The unemployment rate rose 0.1% to 4.7% as expected. As a result of the payrolls report, market sentiment now points to a 52% Fed rate cut of 25 basis points in October, compared to 72% prior to Friday's report. Many analysts warn though that the recent gain in payrolls was the result of more public-sector jobs rather than private sector job creation. With the unemployment rate rising twice in the last three months, the Fed has enough to worry about. The currency market reflected that view as the dollar rose against the majors at the release of the payrolls data; however could not hold on to those gains as investors still remain pessimistic on the short-term outlook for the US economy and the dollar. EURUSD opened on Friday at 1.4136, hit a low of 1.4033 and closed at 1.4138.
Canada's employment report showed a gain of 51,100, beating the expected 17,500 and up more than double from August's 23,300. Furthermore, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9% in September from 6.0% in August. A weakening dollar and higher commodity prices sent the USDCAD pair crashing: opening for the day at 0.9968, hitting a low of 0.9787 and closing at 0.9806.