Forex Daily Wrap-Up: USD ends week in box seat against all peers

**EUR/USD**

_iNVEZZ.com Friday July 5th:_ Today’s Asian session saw the EUR/USD start a downtrend from 1.2890 which continued until the end of the European session when the euro slumped further to 1.2804 against the greenback, an intraday low to this point.

The pair was under pressure from upbeat US employment updates which came out earlier in the day.
The US non-farm employment change update came out with 195,000 jobs added in June, beating forecasts for a 165,000 increase and matching May’s revised number.

The US unemployment rate for June was unchanged though, at May’s 7.6 percent and missing expectations for a modest fall to 7.5 percent.
Average Weekly Hours were reported unchanged in June at 34.5, matching the estimates. Average Hourly Earnings also for June m/m and y/y were respectively up 0.4 percent from 0.1 in the prior month, and 2.2 percent, up from May’s 2.0 percent.

**GBP/USD**
The GBP/USD started a downtick in the early Asian session and ahead of the New York opening the quote descended to a four-month low at 1.4857, falling 181 pips to this point.
With no significant economic data from the UK scheduled today, influence on the pair came solely from the US employment updates, released earlier in the day.
Yesterday sterling descended against the greenback to 1.5026, an intraday low, following the BoE decision to keep its benchmark interest rate and asset purchase facility at the current levels, respectively 0.50 percent and £375 billion.

**USD/JPY**
The US dollar is continuing its uptrend against the yen today and the pair has risen to a more-than-one-month high at 101.23.
The greenback took support from the upbeat US labour updates while the yen found strength in better than expected growth in preliminary readings of Japan’s Leading Economic Indicators and Coincident Index.
The Leading Economic Indicators reported a rise to 110.5 from an upwardly revised 107.7 for April, with the Coincident Index also rising, by 0.8 of a point to 105.9 from April’s 105.1, providing more evidence of a pickup in the Japanese economy.

**USD/CAD**
The USD/CAD started today at 1.0521 and since release of the Canadian and US employment data the quote has risen to a two-year high at 1.0607, increasing 0.95 percent for the day so far.
Canadian unemployment remained unchanged at 7.1 percent in June, in line with analysts’ expectations. During the first half of the year, employment growth averaged 14,000 per month, well below the average of 27,000 in the second half of 2012.
The country’s economy lost a net 400 jobs in June, but the number was not significant enough to change the unemployment rate.
Later in the day Canada’s Ivey PMI for June came in at a seasonally adjusted fall to 55.3 from 63.1 in May, and the non-seasonally adjusted index falling to 56.6 from 70.8 in the prior period.
**AUD/USD**
The Aussie has remained slightly down on the greenback during trading today and the pair has fallen to an intraday low at 0.9046 so far. In mid-European trading the pair rose to an intraday high at 0.9178, increasing 0.30 percent to this point.
The day started for the quote with the Australian AiG Performance of Construction Index for June, which came out at 00:30 BST today showing an increase to 39.5 points from May’s 35.3. The reading is based on inputs from 120 companies and reflects short- and medium-term conditions in the Australian construction industry.
**USD/CHF**
In European trading today the pair rose to 0.9659, its highest price since May 29, boosted by the upbeat US employment data.
Earlier in the day the annualised and monthly readings of Switzerland’s CPI for June were released, showing a m/m increase of 0.1 percent, against expectations for a 0.1 percent fall, and a y/y 0.1 percent fall, against May’s -0.5 percent.
The Swiss National Bank reported holdings of CHF434.851 billion in foreign currency at the end of June, against April’s CHF444.113 billion, revised up from the originally reported CHF441.410 billion.