USD Index Extends Gains on Flight to Safety, Positive ADP Data

Summary:

The USD Index is up as traders continue to march towards the safe-haven pair. Additionally, the upbeat ADP employment buoyed the DXY.

The USD Index is up on the day after June delivered a solid increase in private-sector payrolls. However, hiring seems to have slowed from the previous month, as the ADP data showed.

The ADP Employment Change data showed that the US private sector added 692K jobs. This number outstripped the consensus figure of 555K job additions but was less than the previous month’s 886K job additions (a downward revision from 978K).

While the report shows that robust job recovery continues, the US employment market may not be out of the woods yet. The Fed has repeatedly said it would only consider tapering or an earlier lift-off for monetary policy tightening if there is sufficient evidence that the US employment market has recovered.

Friday’s Non-Farm Payrolls report could indicate whether the US employment is closer to the Fed’s goals or not. So far, the USD Index (DXY) is holding its own and is trading higher by 0.16%.

Technical Levels to Watch

Wednesday’s upside move is a follow-up to Tuesday’s recovery move, putting the DXY on track to attain the 92.32 resistance. A break above this level targets 92.50 and puts the 92.80 and 93.17 resistance targets on notice.

Conversely, rejection at 92.50 could allow for a pullback to 92.00. A further break of 92.00 provides for a break towards 91.50 and potentially touch off 91.26 and 90.965.