The dollar sank against other major currencies on Friday after Non-Farm Payrolls missed expectations.
Dollar weakness was exacerbated by dramatic revisions down in prior months’ readings that culminated in the US economy adding just over 100,000 jobs over a 3-month period.
The headline jobs reading for July came in at 73,000 jobs added, falling way short of analysts’ estimates of 104,000.
However, the real shock for markets came in the form of revisions to prior months’ numbers. Over 250,000 jobs were slashed from initial forecasts, which painted a very dim picture of the US economy.
The dollar sank in the immediate reaction to the news, with USD/JPY breaking back beneath 149.00 and EUR/USD rallying through 1.1550.
GBP/USD surged on Friday, breaking a downtrend that was starting to look like a one-way train. Gold jumped over 1.5% on dollar weakness and was back trading comfortably above $3,350 per oz.
Jerome Powell’s hawkish press conference on Wednesday is starting to seem like a long time ago. Having effectively ruled out a September rate cut less than 48 hours ago, the US economy is now screaming out for intervention.