The consumer confidence index and US job openings data present a negative outlook ahead of Friday's Non-farm Payroll data release.

Two economic data released by the United States tonight (August 29) fell short of expectations. Consequently, the greenback weakened against most major currency pairs, and the US Dollar Index (DXY) fell to 103.70s.

US Dollar Index

The Conference Board reported that the US Consumer Confidence Index was 106.1 in the August 2023 survey, which fell far from the consensus estimate of 116.0. The index for the July period was also revised down from 117.0 to 114.0. JOLT's Job Openings data declined by 338k to 8.827 million in July 2023. This is its lowest level since March 2021.

The Conference Board melaporkan bahwa Indeks Keyakinan Konsumen AS tercatat 106.1 dalam survei Agustus 2023, atau meleset cukup jauh dari estimasi konsensus yang dipatok pada 116.0. Indeks untuk periode Juli juga direvisi turun dari 117.0 menjadi 114.0. Data JOLTs Job Openings merosot sebanyak 338k menjadi 8.827 juta saja pada Juli 2023. Ini merupakan level terendahnya sejak Maret 2021.

These data points present a negative outlook for market participants ahead of Friday's US Non-farm Payroll data release. Concerns triggered profit-taking on the US dollar, causing the USD to weaken against several of its major counterparts.

AUD/USD strengthened by around 0.4% to reach the daily high at 0.6468, followed by EUR/USD, which climbed 0.3% to the 1.0850 range. USD/JPY also fell from its peak at 147.37 to the 145.80 range as of the time of writing. However, the Consumer Confidence Index and JOLTs are not among the primary policy references in the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions.

Market participants will be more focused on releasing personal spending and consumption data (PCE) on Thursday and a series of high-impact labor reports on Friday. There have been no significant changes to the Fed's interest rate expectations since the post-Jackson Hole Symposium weekend.