Euro braces for NFP report

The EUR/USD is on the climb in Thursday trading, lifting into the 1.0800 handle as the Euro (EUR) gains a third of a percent against the US Dollar (USD).

Market bets of a rate cut from the Federal Reserve (Fed) are on the rise, pushing the US Dollar broadly lower, and the Greenback is now on pace to be the worst-performing currency of the FX majors bloc heading into Friday’s US Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) print to close out the trading week.

Before Friday’s US NFP lands on markets, Germany’s Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is due early Friday. German HICP inflation is expected to hold steady at 2.3% for the year ending in November, in-line with October’s YoY print.

Friday will also bring US Average Hourly Earnings for November, with the MoM figure forecast to tick up slightly from 0.2% to 0.3%. Meanwhile, latest US NFP is forecast to show a net gain of 180K new jobs in November, versus October’s 150K net employment gain.

Friday’s trading action will close out with the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index for December, which is expected to show that US consumers are seeing an improving outlook on the domestic economy. The UoM’s Consumer Sentiment Index is expected to tick up from 61.3 to 62.0.