The USD/NOK currency pair extended slide to a new 3 1/2-year low of 9.4528 on Wednesday ahead of US jobs and inflation data prints, which may provide fresh clues over the Fed’s monetary policy trajectory.
Employers in all sectors of the US economy, excluding farming, probably added 70,000 job positions in January, according to market consensus, following a job growth of 50,000 in December.
And, the unemployment rate probably remained steady at 4.4% in January.
San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly said last week that one or two additional interest rate cuts might be required to counteract weakness in the US labor market.
At the same time, US December retail sales fell short of market consensus, while indicating a slowdown in consumer spending and also reinforcing expectations of further policy easing by the Federal Reserve.
Markets are now pricing in a higher probability of three interest rate cuts this year, compared to two a week earlier.
Meanwhile, in Norway, annual CPI inflation has picked up to 3.6% in January, the latest data showed, from 3.2% in December. It has been the highest inflation rate since September 2025.
Market estimate had pointed to an easing to 3.1%.
And, Norway’s annual inflation adjusted for tax changes and excluding energy products (CPI-ATE) has accelerated to 3.4% in January from 3.1% in December.
Inflation has remained well above Norges Bank’s target, which suggests a restrictive monetary policy is still necessary.
Norges Bank left its key policy rate without change at 4% at its January meeting, in line with market consensus.
The central bank reaffirmed its December rate projection, pointing to one or two rate cuts this year, despite heightened geopolitical uncertainty.
The USD/NOK currency pair was last down 0.37% on the day to trade at 9.4663.
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