Key moments
- USD/NOK hovers above lows not seen since early November 2024
- US employment data in focus amid ongoing US tariff uncertainty
- Norway manufacturing production shrinks in January
The USD/NOK currency pair hovered just above a fresh four-month trough on Friday, as market players remained wary ahead of the release of the US Non-Farm Payrolls report later in the day.
The US Dollar has recently faced pressure, since concerns over slowing US economic growth urged investors to wager on more interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
Employers in all sectors of the US economy, excluding farming, probably added 160,000 job positions in February, according to market consensus, following a job growth of 143,000 in January.
Weaker-than-expected employment figures could mount even more pressure on the greenback. According to Swissquote Bank analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya, lower-than-expected payrolls figure combined with faster-than-expected wage growth would be a worse-case scenario. This would mean the Federal Reserve would be facing a slowing economy and it would have limited room to provide support.
The ongoing uncertainty surrounding US trade policy has also kept market players on edge. Yesterday US President Donald Trump suspended the 25% tariffs, imposed earlier on the majority of imports from Canada and Mexico – the latest twist in the Trump administration’s shifting trade policy.
“The rapidly shifting sands of U.S. tariffs are turning into quicksand for businesses in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to drown in,” Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“I’m not particularly confident at this point in time committing money to the market because there is just so much uncertainty out there. It’s a horrible, horrible backdrop for investors to be operating in.”
Meanwhile, the latest data out of Norway showed that manufacturing production had shrunk 1.5% month-over-month in January, following a 3.2% surge in the prior month.
Production of refined petroleum, chemicals and pharmaceuticals dropped 2.2% month-over-month, while that of computer and electrical equipment contracted 4.5%.
The USD/NOK currency pair was last losing 0.51% on the day to trade at 10.8276. Yesterday the exotic Forex pair plunged as low as 10.8214, or its lowest level since November 7th 2024.
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