Markets spent the week whipsawing between conflicting financial indicators, leaving most main currencies trapped in uneven, directionless buying and selling as merchants struggled to search out conviction.
The greenback opened Monday nursing losses from softer inflation expectations, solely to stage a quick comeback Tuesday after disappointing retail gross sales initially triggered promoting. Wednesday’s blockbuster jobs report—130,000 payrolls versus simply 40,000 anticipated—sparked one other spherical journey because the headline beat clashed with large downward revisions displaying 2025 added simply 181,000 jobs as an alternative of the initially reported 584,000. Friday’s cooler-than-expected CPI capped the week with recent volatility, pushing inflation expectations again towards earlier Fed price cuts.
Past US information, Japan’s political drama dominated foreign money flows as Prime Minister Takaichi’s landslide election victory triggered intervention warnings that saved the yen bid all week. In the meantime, spreading fears about AI-driven disruption despatched fairness markets tumbling Thursday, briefly lifting safe-haven demand earlier than Friday’s risk-on reversal.
The end result? Most currencies completed combined with marginal weekly modifications, reflecting a market caught between competing narratives about progress, inflation, and central financial institution coverage paths. Solely the yen and franc managed clear directional strikes, whereas the remainder churned sideways by 5 days of headline-driven noise.
