US Dollar slides with JOLTS contracting firmly as job market tightens

February 4, 2025

NEW YORK (February 4) The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the performance of the US Dollar against six major currencies, is dipping lower in immediate reaction to the US Jolts Job Openings report for December. The actual number came in far lower, at 7.6 million against the expected 8 million. Clearly the US job market is starting to see lower demand for workforce as the JOLTS numbers is steadly starting to shrink month over month. 

The DXY trades around 108.00 at the time of writing. Markets are reacting as well to a mixture of headlines with a sigh of relief from Mexico and Canada, which saw the imposition of US tariffs delayed. Meanwhile, China has retaliated against US President Trump’s tariffs by issuing its own levies over US imported goods. In addition to the geopolitical headlines and the US data, two Federal Reserve (Fed) speakers, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, will speak and might leave comments for markets to consider. 

Daily digest market movers: JOLTS shrinks substantially

  • China has announced this Tuesday a 15% levy on less than $5 billion in US energy imports, such as Coal and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), and a 10% fee on American Oil and agricultural equipment, and it will also investigate Google for alleged antitrust violations, Bloomberg reports. Meanwhile, Canada and Mexico are seeing US-imposed tariffs being delayed thanks to their actions to comply with US President Donald Trump. 
  • The monthly Factory Orders for December falls to -0.9%, below the estimate of -0.7% and deeper than the -0.4% in the previous month.
  • The US JOLTS Job Openings for December faced a bigger decreased to 7.6 million openings, from the 8 million expected,  down from 8.098 million in November. 
  • The Federal Reserve has two speakers lined up as well: 
    • Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic moderates a conversation with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens at a National Housing Crisis Task Force meeting at Atlanta at 16:00 GMT. 
    • San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will participate in the Walter E. Hoadley Annual Economic Forecast panel, hosted by the Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California at 19:00 GMT.
  • Equities pop higher with expectations for another Fed rate cut growing a touch after this tighter JOLTS Job Openings report. 
  • The CME FedWatch tool projects an 86.5% chance of keeping interest rates unchanged  in the Fed’s next meeting on March 19. 
  • The US 10-year yield is trading around 4.555%, up from its fresh yearly low at 4.46% seen Monday. 

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