The U.S. unemployment rate was reported at 6.2 per cent in February by the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), falling marginally by 0.1 per cent from the 6.3 per cent that was reported in January.
The reported performance of the U.S. labour market over the last month exceeded the expectations of the preliminary forecasts, which were anticipating headline unemployment to rise by 0.1 per cent.
The employment conditions have evidently improved considerably over the previous month, allowing non-farm payrolls to rise by 379 thousand. In contrast, the initial forecasts were expecting the U.S. labour market to have added only 197 thousand new jobs.
The findings of today's labour market survey underpin an across the board stabilisation of employment conditions in the U.S., which is inlined with what FED Chair Jerome Powell said yesterday. That unemployment is likely to continue depreciating over the following months and that the Federal Reserve will maintain its accommodative monetary policy stance for as long as it is needed to foster such recovery.
Meanwhile, the already recuperating dollar was further bolstered by today's employment numbers. As can be seen on the 30 Min chart below, the EURUSD currently finds itself in a firm downtrend.
Even though the price action is currently trying to consolidate just above the latest swing low, the underlying sentiment looks ostensibly bearish-oriented. The EURUSD continues to be depreciating while being contained within the boundaries of a descending channel.
Moreover, the three moving averages - the 50-day MA (in green), the 100-day MA (in blue) and the 200-day MA (in purple) - continue to follow a perfect descending order, which further elucidates the strength of the bearish pressure in the market.
While the price action looks poised to continue depreciating over the next several days, the emergence of a potential bullish pullback is not entirely implausible. Such a correction could extend as high as the 100-day MA, which is currently converging with the channel's upper boundary before the bulls are checked.