USD/SGD confined in tight range ahead of US jobs data string

The USD/SGD currency pair remained mostly flat on Wednesday ahead of a string of macro data that may provide more clues over the US interest rate cut trajectory this year.

Today’s focus will likely be on US job openings data. The number of job openings probably fell to 8.100 million in July from 8.184 million in June.

Also, employers in all sectors of the US economy, excluding farming, probably added 163,000 job positions in August, according to market consensus, following a job growth of 114,000 in July. The official Non-Farm Payrolls data will be released on Friday.

Yesterday the Institute for Supply Management published somewhat soft US manufacturing data that raised concerns about a hard landing for the world’s top economy.

US shares experienced the biggest sell-off in nearly one month, while the safe haven US Dollar remained broadly firm, after data showed US manufacturing had remained subdued despite a modest improvement in August from July’s eight-month low.

Markets are now pricing in about a 38% chance of a 50 basis point Fed rate cut this month, up from 31% a day ago, and a 62% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut.

“Expectations are high for the US to cut by an outsized 50 bps in at least one of the remaining 3 meetings this year,” Jeff Ng, head of Asia Macro Strategy of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, survey data revealed that the nation’s private sector had grown at the fastest rate since October 2022 in August, as new orders rose the most in 23 months and production rose the most in 22 months.

The S&P Global Singapore PMI came in at a reading of 57.6 in August, up from 57.2 in July.

As of 7:36 GMT on Wednesday the USD/SGD currency pair was inching down 0.05% to trade at 1.3061, while moving within a narrow range.