The EUR/USD pair is little changed ahead of an important speech by Jerome Powell, the Fed chair. The pair is also reacting to bettereconomic data from the United States. It is trading at 1.1800, which is in the same range it has been in the past few days.
US jobless claims fall
The number of Americans filing for initial jobless claims declined to 1.006 million in the previous week. That was a worse number than the 1 million that what analysts polled by Reuters were expecting. It was also lower than the 1.1 million that were released on Thursday last week.
Meanwhile, the continuing jobless claims declined to 14.5 million from the previous week’s 14.84 million. That was the lowest the number has been in months. While these numbers were good, they remain significantly higher than before the coronavirus pandemic.
The claims come as several states have received approval to distribute an extra $300 per week in federal unemployment benefits that were signed by Donald Trump. These benefits, which are lower than the previous $600 are likely to incentivise more people to go back to work. According to reports, more than 47% of recipients were earning more money in benefits than in their jobs.
US economy contracted in the second quarter
The EUR/USD pair reacted mildly to the GDP numbers from the United States. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US economy contracted by 31.7% in the second quarter. That was worse than the 5.0% decline in the first quarter, which means that the economy is in a technical recession. Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting the economy to contract by 32.5%.
