30 Oct 2013
EUR/USD creeps up ahead of Fed
FXstreet.com (London) - The euro continues to see some strength against the dollar running into this afternoon’s Fed announcement, after mixed German labour market numbers.
Seasonally-adjusted German joblessness rose to its highest level since June 2011, while unemployment remained close to post-reunification record levels.
Unemployment dropped in October by a non-seasonally adjusted 47,800, with the total number of unemployed at 2.801 million, the lowest level since November 2012.
In seasonally-adjusted terms, unemployment increased by 2,000, leaving the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate unchanged at 6.9 percent.
Going forward, the German labour market will likely struggle to show any further improvements, particularly with minimum wage policy one of the key demands of the SPD in negotiations to form a grand coalition with Angela Merkel’s CDU party. The social democrat party are pushing for a minimum wage of EUR8.50-an-hour. The fear is that labour price controls will reduce demand and raise unemployment, or at least drag on small business growth.
The two parties met today for a second round of talks, today focussing on European policy, with the SPD pushing for the implementation of a European financial transactions tax.
This afternoon will see the Fed announcement at the conclusion of its two-day FOMC meeting where it will almost certainly continue dovish rhetoric following poor US labour market statistics and consumer confidence reports.
There was some short covering this morning with profit taking from dollar shorts, but EUR/USD has crept upwards 0.11 percent to 0.11 percent.
Seasonally-adjusted German joblessness rose to its highest level since June 2011, while unemployment remained close to post-reunification record levels.
Unemployment dropped in October by a non-seasonally adjusted 47,800, with the total number of unemployed at 2.801 million, the lowest level since November 2012.
In seasonally-adjusted terms, unemployment increased by 2,000, leaving the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate unchanged at 6.9 percent.
Going forward, the German labour market will likely struggle to show any further improvements, particularly with minimum wage policy one of the key demands of the SPD in negotiations to form a grand coalition with Angela Merkel’s CDU party. The social democrat party are pushing for a minimum wage of EUR8.50-an-hour. The fear is that labour price controls will reduce demand and raise unemployment, or at least drag on small business growth.
The two parties met today for a second round of talks, today focussing on European policy, with the SPD pushing for the implementation of a European financial transactions tax.
This afternoon will see the Fed announcement at the conclusion of its two-day FOMC meeting where it will almost certainly continue dovish rhetoric following poor US labour market statistics and consumer confidence reports.
There was some short covering this morning with profit taking from dollar shorts, but EUR/USD has crept upwards 0.11 percent to 0.11 percent.