Jump in non-farm jobs
That more than doubled the 60,000 jobs increase forecast and it impressed the markets that resulted in a swift rally in the dollar, once the jobs figures hit the markets.
It kick-started a strong dollar rally as the euro fell from $1.08 to $1.0750, as the investors took heart from the figures.
However, the rally was short-lived as analysts stopped to consider where the composition of those jobs figures.
To some, the figure contrasted starkly with the loss of 101,000 jobs in December, mainly in retail. For January, it is alleged that 91,000 of the jobs were generated by retail.
That figure conflicted with normal trends, where the creation of a vast number of retail jobs in the run-up to Christmas would be normal, while such an increase in January would be totally counter to normal economic trends seen in the past in the US.
When economists started to ponder the implications of the jobs figures, the mood shifted and the euro regained its loss ground and then some.
By late evening, it was trading back up at 1.0820 as it emerged that the statistics coming out of the US were also the subject of some alteration in the way they were made up.
Ulster Bank Ireland’s Niall Dunne said the shift in sentiment towards the dollar was pretty rapid in both directions.
As a result of the uncertainty, stock markets stayed pretty flat as the week drew to a close. the ISEQ was off just 30 points; the FTSE was down five points to below 3,600, while the Dow Jones was more or less flat, having lost just 50 points in early trading.
