The U.S. Dollar was seen trading rather firm on Thursday. Lack of economic news flow has shifted focus on the United Kingdom.
The Bank of England hiked interest rates by 25 basis points as widely expected. This brought the short-term interest rates to 0.75%. The central bank, however, signaled that further interest rate hikes would come gradually. The Pound Sterling fell on the back of this news as investors now expect to see the next rate hike in 2019.
Looking ahead, the UK’s services PMI figures will be coming out today. Economists forecast that the services sector activity fell to 54.7 in July compared to 55.1 the month before.
The main focus will, of course, be on the U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls report. Estimates show that the U.S. economy added 190k jobs during the month. The unemployment rate is expected to slip back to 3.9% while wage growth is forecasted to rise 0.3% on the month.
The day concludes with the ISM’s non-manufacturing PMI which is expected to ease to 58.6.
