By CountingPips.com
U.S. employment data released today in the form of the ADP private employment report showed that private companies hired a total of 217,000 workers in the month of February. This data surpassed the market forecasters and follows a revised gain of 189,000 workers in January. The original January report had shown a rise of 187,000 workers.
Market forecasters and economists were expecting the jobs report to come in with a gain of approximately 185,000 jobs for the month. The advance in private February 
jobs pushed the streak of service-sector gains to thirteen consecutive months of increases and the goods-producing sector to the fifth straight month of gains.
The service sector saw an increase of 202,000 workers in February and the goods-producing sector registered a gain of 15,000 workers. Manufacturing jobs rose by 20,000 workers while the construction sector declined by 9,000 workers. The financial sector was virtually unchanged in February.
Large businesses added 13,000 workers for February while medium-size businesses hired 104,000 workers. Small businesses or companies with less than 50 workers also saw employment payrolls climb by 100,000 workers for the month.
The market-moving US nonfarm government payroll report is scheduled to be released on Friday at 13:30 GMT. Early forecasts are looking for the payrolls report to increase by 182,000 workers and the unemployment rate to level at 9.1 percent.
Forex: US dollar on the defensive as Stocks rise
The US dollar has mostly lower against the other major currencies in the forex markets today. The dollar has lost ground on the day versus the euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the British pound sterling while gaining on the New Zealand dollar.
The US stock markets, meanwhile, have been on the uptick in morning trading today with the Dow Jones industrial average increasing by over 40 points while the NASDAQ has been higher by over 20 points and the S&P 500 has increased by roughly 6 points at time of writing.
In commodities, oil has edged up slightly by $0.23 to the $99.86 level while gold futures have been virtually unchanged at the $1,430.70 level so far today.
