Forex – U.S. dollar Unchanged Ahead of Job Report

By Ritu,

Capital Sands

The U.S. dollar was unchanged on Friday in Asia as traders awaited the release of the latest U.S. job report, which is due at 8:30 AM ET (13:30 GMT).

The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was unchanged at 97.380 by 1:30 AM ET (05:30 GMT).

Analysts tracked by Investing.com expect the job report to show the economy added 186,000 jobs in November, up from 128,000 jobs in October and 155,00 jobs in November 2018. The unemployment rate is projected to hold steady at 3.6%, unchanged from October and down slightly from December 2018.

Traders also kept an eye out for the latest development on the Sino-U.S. trade front as U.S. President Donald Trump said “something could happen” on whether the Washington will impose new tariffs on Chinese goods starting Dec. 15.

Trump said on Thursday that negotiations with China are going “very well,” just one day after he said an agreement to end the trade dispute may have to be delayed until after the American presidential election in November 2020.

The USD/CNY pair traded 0.1% lower to 7.0417.

The EUR/USD pair was little changed at 1.1102 as data on Thursday showed that German factory orders unexpectedly declined in October.

The GBP/USD pair was also near flat at 1.3156. Reports this week suggested that U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson could win a majority at next week’s election, paving the way for Britain to leave the European Union on Jan. 31.

The USD/JPY pair slipped 0.1% to 108.68.

Meanwhile, the AUD/USD pair and the NZD/USD pair both gained 0.2%.