Unit Labor Costs comes in at 1.3% against 0.4% consensus
| Pair | Now | Since publish |
|---|---|---|
| EURUSD | — | — |
| USDJPY | — | — |
USD Unit Labor Costs for the quarter came in at 1.3%, according to data released today. This figure was significantly above the consensus expectation of 0.4%. The previous quarter’s reading was 1.8%. The actual print represented a 225.0% surprise compared to the consensus forecast.
Following the release, market reactions across major USD pairs and gold were observed. Fifteen minutes after the data, AUDUSD was down 1.4 pips, EURUSD was down 1.0 pips, and NZDUSD was down 2.3 pips. GBPUSD was up 1.2 pips, USDCHF was up 0.3 pips, and USDCAD was down 0.2 pips. USDJPY saw a gain of 4.8 pips. Gold, XAUUSD, was up 56 pips. For most currency pairs, these initial moves were relatively small when compared to their typical median 1-hour moves after similar past releases, which range from 6 to 9 pips. XAUUSD’s 56 pip move exceeded its median 1-hour move of 28 pips.