The U.S. dollar managed to maintain its bullish momentum on Thursday after economic data released showed that the trade deficit narrowed to $42.2 billion in the month of August. This marked the lowest levels since a year. Orders for capital goods excluding non-defense rose 1.1% in August beating estimates of 0.9%. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the fiscal 2018 budget draft which is expected to pave way for the government to go ahead with the tax reforms.
Elsewhere, the ECB’s meeting minutes revealed that the central bank is on path to tapering QE but that it could happen at a gradual pace.
Looking ahead, the September payrolls report will be released today. According to the estimates, the U.S. economy is expected to add 82k jobs for the month of September which is below the average trend. On the upside, wages are expected to grow 0.3% on the month while the unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 4.4%. Canada will also be releasing its jobs report today and the Canadian unemployment rate is expected to tick higher to 6.3% from 6.2% in the previous month.
