The USD is experiencing stress, just like everyone else. Overview for 09.03.2020

On Monday morning, the major currency pair reached its highest levels over the last 13 months due to panic among market players. 

Early in the second week of March, EURUSD is rising while global investors are sinking in the ocean of emotions and panic. The current quote for the instrument is 1.1400.

OPEC+ managed to outmatch the Chinese coronavirus issue and its influence on global economies. The cartel’s meeting turned out to be a complete failure. Starting from April 1st, the members won’t be under any obligations or agreements, because OPEC+ couldn’t agree on the renewal of the term and its conditions. 

It means that any oil producer will be allowed to extract as much oil as they want, thus making the already low demand even lower by glutting the market with unnecessary raw materials. 

However, while the world is in panic, let’s get back to the labor market statistics published by the USA last Friday, which were pretty good. The Unemployment Rate went from 3.6% in January to 3.5% in February, although it wasn’t expected to change. The Average Hourly Earnings added 0.3% m/m, the same as expected, after expanding by 0.2% the month before. The Non-Farm Employment Change showed 273K, the same as in January, while market expectations implied 175K.

As can be seen, the US employment sector is feeling fine and may have helped the US Federal Reserve to keep the rate unchanged if it was not for slumping oil prices.