USD/SEK settles below 1-week high, posts weekly gain

The USD/SEK currency pair settled below Friday’s high of 9.6527, its strongest level since May 29th, as US job market resilience tempered Fed rate cut expectations.

Employers in the United States added 139,000 jobs in May, representing a slight pullback from April’s downwardly revised growth of 147,000 positions. The latest figure came in ahead of the 130,000 job increase forecast by economists surveyed by Reuters, but still signaled a cooling in hiring activity.

The US unemployment rate remained flat at 4.2%. This aligned with economists’ expectations and suggested a still-resilient labor market.

The jobs data prompted traders to scale back expectations for aggressive monetary easing. Market pricing now suggests that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to take action on interest rates before September.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, annual consumer inflation has eased to its lowest level since November 2020 in May.

The inflation rate slowed to 0.2% in May from 0.3% in April and below market consensus of 0.4%.

May has been the 10th straight month with inflation below the Riksbank’s 2% target.

The USD/SEK currency pair settled 0.74% higher at 9.6299 on Friday.

The exotic Forex pair gained 0.59% for the week.