Expectations for US economic conditions to improve following the release of impressive employment data

 The nonfarm payroll is a measure of the labor force in the United States, excluding farm workers and those employed in a handful of other occupations. The report is produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which surveys private and public establishments in the United States on their wages and salaries. The highly regarded “Employment Situation” report provides the public with monthly figures for nonfarm workers.

In addition to farm workers, the nonfarm payroll data exclude some government employees, households, proprietors and nonprofit employees.

The index was released at 1:30 p.m. on January 6 and came in 23K higher than expected at 223K, although it should be noted that the prior period figure for this index was 256K.

After the release of this index, which was higher than expected, the price of gold on the markets rose to 1870.93, and the EUR/USD exchange rate rose to 1.06481.