Having lost a lot of ground against other majors in August, the dollar’s managed to start this month on a high note.

Traders are looking ahead this week to Friday’s release of non-farm payrolls for August for some idea of whether the dollar might continue its gains since last week against the euro, yen and others.

The consensus prediction is currently about 193,000.

Last month’s release of 157,000 fell short of the prediction by some way and gave fuel to the greenback’s ongoing pullback against various currencies.

The main attention in August as a whole was on trade wars and the overall ‘risk-off’ environment in markets, with cable in particular unstable on contradictory Brexit rumours.

At the start of this month though the dollar has done a lot better, reaching near month highs against the yen.

Dollar bulls are hoping that the NFP prediction might prove more accurate this time to push USD higher – whatever happens, big movements are expected around the release, so tune in on Friday afternoon!

FRIDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER, 15.30 (GMT+3)

• The NFP measures the change in numbers of employees in the USA
• Seen as a key economic indicator, new jobs help to determine consumer spending
• Last month’s figure of 157,000 was much lower than expected
• With about 190,000 predicted, a clearer trend for the dollar could begin