EUR/USD currency pair posted an unexpected growth today as the U.S. economy reported an even faster decline in the nonfarm jobs and the unemployment rate exceeded the pessimistic forecasts. EUR/USD is now trading near 1.2941.

Nonfarm payrolls fell by 598k in January after falling by 577k in December (revised down from the decline by 524k). The decline in the nonfarm payrolls was expected to be near 540k. The unemployment rate rose from 7.2% to 7.6% in January; the analysts forecast the rate at 7.5%.

Consumer credit dropped by $6.6 billion in December after falling by as much as $11 billion through the month of November (revised downwardly from $7.9 drop). The median forecast for the current report’s decline in the consumer credit was at $3.5 billion.