The US Dollar Index bears on Friday retained control at 99.78 following the release of the latest US non-farm payrolls data. The Dollar Index appears to be on course to complete a 1,2,3,4,5 impulse wave within a sideways channel. This comes at a time when the market appears to be lacking a clear directional momentum.

The USDX has declined for two successive days and on Friday failed to respond to the positive non-farm payroll data. It continues to trade within the normal range of the 14-hour RSI in the 60-min chart.

The US Dollar Index Fundamentals Overview

From a fundamental perspective, the USDX is trading at the back of a relatively busy week in the US market. On Tuesday, the US ISM non-manufacturing PMI for April beat the expectation of 36.8 with 41.8. However, the ISM non-manufacturing employment index missed 51.6 with 30. On Wednesday, the ADP employment change for April came short of the expected change of -20.05M with a change of -20.236M. And on Thursday, the initial jobless claims of 3.169 M were higher the expected claims of 3 million.

On the other hand, the non-farm payrolls of -20.5 million came in better than the expected figure of -22 million. The (YoY) change in average hourly earnings also blew estimate with a growth of 7.9% versus an expectation of 3.3%. However, the unemployment rate edged slightly higher than expected to 14.7% up from 4.4% in March. The market was expecting a rate of 14%.

The US Dollar Index Technical Analysis (the 60-min Chart)

Technically, the US dollar index appears to be trading within a sideways channel amid a lack of clear directional momentum. In the latest twist, the bears appear to have seized short-term control, but this could change again soon.

They will be looking to extend short-term declines towards 99.61 or lower at 99.08. On the other hand, the bulls will be targeting short-term rebound profits at around 100.09 or higher at 100.57.

The US Dollar Index Technical Analysis (the Daily Chart)

In the daily chart, the DXY appears to be trading within a gently ascending channel. This indicates a slight long-term bullish bias in the market sentiment. The dollar index is pegged centrally in the 14-day RSI. This suggests that the current trend could continue through next week.

The bulls will be targeting profits at around 101.04, 102.21, or higher at 103.00. On the other hand, the bears will pounce at 98.71, 97.38 or lower at 96.30