By CountingPips.com
The US dollar has continued to be on the defensive today against most of the major currencies in the forex markets following the unexpected decline in the ADP employment report. The dollar has lost ground on the day versus the euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and the Canadian dollar while trading a bit higher against the British pound sterling in the afternoon of the US trading session. On the week, the American currency has 
lost ground against all the major currencies mentioned above.
The US stock markets, meanwhile, have been mixed at close of trading with the Dow Jones industrial average higher by 22.93 points while the NASDAQ and S&P 500 have decreased by 19.17 points and 0.78 points, respectively.
In commodities, Oil has edged up very slightly by $0.36 to the $83.18 level while gold has increased by $8.10 to trade at the $1,347.00 level to mark a new record high.
Today’s ADP private employment report showed that companies lost a total of 39,000 workers in the month of September. This data follows a revised increase of 10,000 workers added in August after the original report had shown a decline of 10,000 workers. Market forecasters and economists were expecting the jobs report to come in on the positive side with a gain of 23,000 jobs for the month. The decline in September jobs breaks a string of seven straight months of job increases dating back to February.
The service sector saw an increase of 6,000 workers in September while the goods-producing sector registered a decrease of 45,000 workers. Manufacturing jobs fell by 17,000 workers for the month while the construction sector declined by 28,000 workers. The financial sector also shed 13,000 workers in September.
Large businesses lost 11,000 workers in June while medium-size businesses fell by 14,000 workers. Small businesses or companies with less than 50 workers also saw employment payrolls fall by 14,000 for the month.
The market-moving US nonfarm government payroll report is scheduled to be released on Friday at 12:30 GMT. Last month, the government report showed 67,000 workers were added to payrolls and the unemployment rate was at 9.7 percent. Early forecasts are looking for the payrolls report to increase by 77,000 workers and the unemployment rate to increase back up to 9.7 percent.
