A hectic day ahead as we head into the weekend.

Major currency pairs remained rather flat yesterday. The EUR/USD opened at $1.16279 and climbed to an early high of $1.16587. Those gains were short-lived as the pair fell back towards $1.16200 where it remained for a few hours. It tried to rally again, heading up to $1.16545 before declining to a late session low of $1.16043. The pair was able to bounce of those lows and is currently trading at $1.16163. The GBP/USD opened at $1.29012 and traded in a tight range early in the session before falling to a low of $1.28950. It climbed off those lows to peak at $1.29616 late in the session then retraced and is currently trading at $1.29251.

The Dow was involved in some wild swings overnight after opening at 25,958.86. The index climbed to 25,998.77, then fell 25,899.46 mid-session. It rallied from that point, reaching highs of 26,076.76 later in the day. However, the Dow tanked from that points, plummeting to lows of 25,878.91 a short time later before bouncing off those lows. It is currently sitting at 25,986.10. The Dax continues to disappoint. The index opened at 12,033.28 and climbed to a high of 12,092.30 early in the session. The Dax remained steady for a few hours before falling to lows of 11,936.10 late in the trading day. It came off those lows to close at 11,987.80.

The day ahead is packed full of data, headlined by a group of employment-related figures from the US. Tonight sees the release of the Non-Farm Employment Change, Unemployment Rate and Average Hourly Earnings figures. These figures take on extra significance as the Fed Reserve use these figures to help them determine monetary policy settings for the US economy. Other data set for release today includes:

Australia – Home Loans

Japan – Leading Indicators

UK – Halifax HPI, Consumer Inflation Expectations

China – Trade Balance, USD-Denominated Trade Balance

Canada – Ivey PMI, Employment Change, Unemployment Rate

Europe – Swiss Unemployment Rate & Foreign Currency Reserves, European Revised GDP & Eurogroup Meetings, German Industrial Production & Trade Balance, French Trade Balance, Industrial Production and Government Budget Balance, Italian Retail Sales

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