If you are a trader than you will be knowing how important news is for the markets. Breaking news can move the markets upside down in matter of few minutes. But breaking news cannot be predicted. You can only hope to avoid it when you are trading. However, there are certain economic reports that are released periodically that have the potential of moving the markets. There are traders popularly known as the news traders who trade these economic reports and make a lot of pips or ticks or points whatever!
The most market moving reports are the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, The Consumer and the Producer Price Index, The Gross Domestic Product (GDP). the monthly Employment Reports or what you call the NFP Report, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Now as said before if these reports have no surprise for the markets, nothing will happen. But in case if there is a surprise, markets can turn upside down in matter of minutes! Now when these economic reports are released, market compares the expected with the unexpected. The more these reports have the element of the unexpected, the more the markets become nervous. So, if you are a news trader or an economic report trader, you need to watch CNBC and Bloomberg constantly to know what the market is expecting.
Now, you can know the date of release of these economic reports by looking at the Economic Calendar. Each month, most of these reports are released by the different agencies that includes both public as well as private at fixed dates. By looking at the Economic Calendar, you can know these dates as it provides the listing of dates when these reports will be released.
Now, FOMC Meeting Minutes are considered to be very important as interest rate changes are decided in the FOMC Meeting. FOMC stands for the Federal Open Market Committee. The other important reports can be the CPI ( Consumer Price Index) and the PPI ( Producer Price Index). Now, you never know how markets are going to react to each one of these economic reports. Some are given more importance by the markets. But this preferrence also keeps on changing.
Now, Non Farm Payroll Report or what you call the NFP Report is the most market moving report in the recent times. This report is released by the US DOL (Department of Labor) and it gives the state of employment in the economy during the last month period. It is released on the first Friday of each month exactly at 8:30 AM EST. There are NFP Report Traders who easily make 150-200 pips at this time within minutes.
These types of reports can also start a news trend in the market that might last for quite sometime! Now as said before, the market reaction is dependent on how muc surprise there is in the report. If there is no element of unexpected in the report, the market may react mildly. But if there is a big surprise in the report that the market did not anticipate, markets can be volatile for hours or even days before the importance of the surprise is digested by the market.
Now, as the economy shifts gear from slow growth to high growth the state of employment figures can become highly important for the economy. This report is used by the traders, investors and Wall Street Analyst to anticipate any interest rate changes in the economy. In the end, it is the interest rates that stand at the center of the financial universe! NFP Report has become important in the last few years keeping in view the slow economic growth.
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