EUR/USD edges towards 1.04 as US jobs report looms later today

The noted earlier rebound in the USD/JPY has for now seemingly stalled ahead of the 152 handle. At the same time, the EUR/JPY has lifted off the lows since earlier today, when it dropped close to 156.75. That cross rate dynamic has allowed the EUR/USD some breathing space on the topside. The Euro had fallen back yesterday to 1.0353 and later lifted into the US close, where it ended that session at 1.0383. The low seen earlier this morning was set at 1.0373. It has just hit a session high, at 1.0395. There might be some sellers around that 1.04 handle, but that cannot be confirmed here. We shall just have to see on that. Meantime, the EUR/USD is poised to react (as is the USD/JPY of course) to the latest US monthly jobs report this afternoon. The much better than forecast ADP payroll report on Wednesday is not necessarily going to deliver a beat on the US monthly payrolls. We know the correlation there is flimsy a lot of the time, so we shall see on that. The markets are expecting US payrolls to have risen by around 170k last month, down from the very impressive 256k gain in December- watch for the revision though. The underlying rate of unemployment is forecast to remain at 4.1%. Average earnings are forecast to be at 3.8% annualised, compared to a 3.9% rise last time. There will be more to add on that later today ahead of the release. Meantime, the EUR/USD is right now at 1.0393