The schedule in Europe has been quiet and it’s an unusual one where the jobs report is released with most markets closed. Futures will trade for a short time after NFP and the FX market doesn’t close for holidays but bonds are shuttered completely.

Greg earlier highlighted recent instances of non-farm payrolls on Good Friday and the overall takeaway is that markets had time to digest and were subdued by Monday.

There is also my non-farm payrolls preview. Overall, I’d be loathe to trade this one in a thin market and I don’t see have even a very strong or very weak number can be a real gamechanger.

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.

The crypto
market lost 0.5% in 24 hours, bouncing back to $1.18 trillion. This level has
become the centre of gravity around which the market has been moving all week.
So far, it looks like a pause and consolidation but not a breakout.

Bitcoin has
fared better this time around, losing 0.4% and remaining stuck at $28,000 for
the past three weeks. Notably, there has been no deep correction or noticeable
upward bias during this time. Bitcoin’s rally has stalled in the area that
provided meaningful support in May and early June last year. An upside move
would be a significant milestone to restore long-term investor confidence.

On the other
hand, a deeper drawdown below $27.0K or even to $25.5K may be required before a
move higher, which would fully correct the rise from the early March lows and
clear the way to the upside.

News background

According to
CCData, trading volumes on centralised crypto exchanges reached $3.81 trillion
in March, the highest since September 2022. Trading volumes on the cash market
rose 10.8% to $1.04 trillion, while the derivatives market jumped 32.6% to
$2.77 trillion.

Cryptocurrencies
will reduce transaction costs for remittances by 97%, according to a study by
Coinbase. Americans sending money overseas collectively pay more than $12
billion in fees each year.

The market
capitalisation of the Tether stablecoin has surpassed $80 billion, rising by
$15 billion in the first three months of 2023 to a record high since May 2022.

This article was written by FxPro’s Senior Market Analyst Alex
Kuptsikevich.

This article was written by FxPro FXPro at www.forexlive.com.

I posted last month how the US non-farm payrolls had come in above estimates for 10 straight months previously and coming into today, it is 11 months in a row now that the data has beat expectations. That is quite an impressive feat.

The estimate this time around for the March figure is +239K on the headline, so we’ll see if there will be any further hiccups after the softer set of numbers from the US throughout the week so far.

But either way, don’t expect the start of the Easter break to be a quiet one even if most European (and other) markets are closed today. The Fed outlook, bond market focus, and dollar sentiment are all extremely sensitive factors impacting trading sentiment at the moment and they will all come into play via the jobs report later.

That will make for a dicey end to the week especially with the bond market sitting on edge.

• Preview: March non-farm payrolls by the numbers

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.

• There is a broadening trend where rising inflation is reflected in wages
• Job market tightening is laying the groundwork for wages to rise further
• Hopes that inflation target can be achieved together with rising wages

Kuroda’s term as governor of the Japanese central bank will come to an end tomorrow. It is rather unfortunate that they haven’t managed to achieve much else during his tenure, with negative interest rates and ultra easing policy being the cornerstones of what was needed amid economic and demographic challenges in the past decade.

But he is at least setting up the platform for his successor, Kazuo Ueda, to perhaps be able to launch Japan out of the existing policy cycle – something which looked like an impossible scenario before the Covid pandemic.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.