Euro retreats mildly on again on news from Greece and as markets await employment data from US. Nonetheless, the common currency remains the strongest major currency so far this week. Greece invoked a rarely used option and requested to bundle today's payment to IMF together with the other three totalling EUR 1.6b, and put them off till end of June. That was a surprise to the markets as IMF chief Christine Lagarde expressed her confidence that Greece would pay the loan payment today. IMF noted in a statement that the bundling was "intended to address the administrative difficulty of making multiple payments in a short period." There were talks that the Greece and its international creditors are targeting to reach a deal by June 14. But now it looks like the negotiations could drag on till the end of the month.
Today's focus will mainly be on non-farm payroll report from US. NFP is expected to show 218k growth in the job markets in May, versus prior month's 223k. Unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 5.4%. Looking at other employment data, ADP private payroll rose to 200k in May versus prior months's 165k. Employment component of ISM manufacturing rose back to 51.7 from 48.3. Employment component of ISM non-manufacturing dropped to 55.3, don slightly from 56.7. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims dropped slightly from 280k to 275k. Overall, the pre-NFP data suggested that a solid number would likely be seen in NFP today with chance of an upside surprise. Conference board consumer confidence rose slightly from 94.3 to 95.4 and was inline with expectation of unchanged unemployment rate at 5.4%. The main market driver today could be on wage growth.
Elsewhere, Japan will release leading indicator Germany will release factor orders, Eurozone will release GDP revision and Swiss will release foreign currency reserves. Canada employment data will also be a focus and is expected to show 10.2k growth in May with unemployment rate unchanged at 6.8%.