EUR/USD dips as market awaits U.S. September jobs report

EUR/USD dips as market awaits U.S. September jobs report

Submitted by caseyb23 on Mon, 10/21/2013 - 23:07

EUR/USD dips as market awaits U.S. September jobs report

Investing.com – The dollar on Monday rose on demand from investors seeking safe-harbor ahead of the release of the U.S. September jobs report on Tuesday, over two weeks late due to the recent government shutdown.

In U.S. trading on Monday, EUR/USD was down 0.06% at 1.3677, up from a session low of 1.3652 and off from a high of 1.3688.

The pair was likely to find support at 1.3474, Wednesday's low, and resistance at 1.3703, Friday's high.

A government shutdown that began Oct. 1 and ended last week left the pair without one of its chief steering currents, the monthly U.S. jobs report.

September's unemployment data will hopefully give investors a weather vane over the direction of U.S. monetary policy.

The Fed is currently buying USD85 billion in Treasury holdings and mortgage debt a month to boost the economy, a monetary policy tool known as quantitative easing that drives down interest rates to spur recovery, weakening the dollar in the process.

The government shutdown and accompanying default fears along with the naming of dovish Janet Yellen as the new Chair of the Federal Reserve left may investors guessing when the U.S. central bank will announce plans to taper its quantitative easing program, which could push the dollar up in the long term.

Investors hope the September jobs data, originally due out Oct. 4, will provide a fresh weather vane for the dollar.

Elsewhere, lackluster data out of the U.S. housing sector softened the dollar's advance over the single currency.

The National Association of Realtors reported earlier that total existing home sales declined 1.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.29 million units in September from a downwardly revised 5.39 million in August, mainly due to home prices outpacing income growth.

Analysts were expecting to see 5.30 million units sold.

Elsewhere, the euro was up against the pound and up against the yen, with EUR/GBP trading up 0.02% at 0.8466 and EUR/JPY trading up 0.29% at 134.20.

On Tuesday, expect the pair to trade on the U.S. jobs report.