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The euro is getting smoked

The euro is getting smoked.

The European Central Bank provided a monetary policy update this morning, and Business Insider's Oscar Williams-Grut has all the details here.

The gist is that as expected, the bank left its key refinancing rate unchanged at 0.05%.

During the press conference, ECB president Mario Draghi said the economic data continues to show a weak recovery in the region. He announced a reduction of the bank's Gross Domestic Product forecasts, and warned that Europe could fall back into deflation in the coming months. He also said the €60 billion-a-month asset buying program could continue beyond 2016, if necessary.

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As he spoke, the euro tanked to a two-week low against the dollar:

Screen Shot 2015 09 03 at 8.42.00 AM
Screen Shot 2015 09 03 at 8.42.00 AM

(Investing.com)

Meanwhile, US stocks slipped to session lows in afternoon trading. Near 2:10 p.m. ET, the Dow and the S&P 500 were near flat, while the Nasdaq was down 17 points. An all-day rally yesterday and a spike in the final minutes of trading pushed the Dow up nearly 300 points.

Screen Shot 2015 09 03 at 2.10.40 PM
Screen Shot 2015 09 03 at 2.10.40 PM

(Google Finance)

In the economy, it's all about the labor market as we head into Friday, when the official jobs report for August crosses. The data flow today started with the monthly report on planned job cuts from staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It showed a 60% drop in job cuts in August after a surge in July that was boosted by US Army layoffs.

In other economic data we received today:

  • Initial jobless claims totaled 282,000 last week, more than expected, and marking nearly six straight months of a reading below 300,000.

  • The trade deficit shrank more than expected, to $41.86 billion in July. Imports of consumer goods fell $2.6 billion, and services rose $0.2 billion.

  • The services sector is still strong. Markit's services PMI came in at 56.1 for August, beating the forecast for 55, and up from 55.2 in July. And, ISM's non-manufacturing PMI for last month was 59, versus 60.3 in August. All sectors reported an expansion except mining.

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