Today's Nonfarm Payrolls data for September will be important as it will be the last report before that FOMC meeting on November 3. With the risks looking skewed to a surprise print being to the upside rather than the downside, there is scope for the dollar to advance further, in the view of economists at MUFG Bank. The consensus has crept a little higher this week helped by the stronger than expected ADP report on Wednesday, which saw a 568k gain (expected 430k).
The NFP consensus of 500k could still be a little on the low side and the risks appear skewed to the upside. USD/JPY in particular, while we are sceptical of the scale of scope to the upside, looks poised to break the 112.00 level which will spark renewed buying.
USD/JPY failed twice at 112.00 in late September but the lack of correction lower since those failures is a positive sign for a fresh break higher today. The EUR/USD low of 1.1529 from Wednesday also looks set to break on a solid NFP report.