EUR/USD a touch soft in open, awaits a busy US events week

• EUR/USD bulls giving ground back at the start of what could be a busy week. 
• Traders are still out on holidays, but US events will make for a jam-packed event week. 

EUR/USD is down some 0.1% on the day so far and has been trading between 1.1361 and 1.1379 so far. The markets are still in holiday mode with Australia, New Zealand and Japan out in Asia and London traders will be enjoying a bank holiday in observation of New Year's Day. 

US event week ahead

However, the week will quickly move into gear with a busy US schedule on the calendar. At the end of the week, the US jobs market will be the showdown event with the US Nonfarm Payrolls report.

''The late-December COVID surge likely came too late to prevent a pickup in US payrolls after the gain in November (210k) appeared to be held down by an overly aggressive seasonal factor,'' analysts at TD Securities explained.

Before then, however, the US dollar will be taking cues from potentially slowing in the ISMs on the 4th.  The levels should remain high according to analysts at TD securities. 

''We expect the services index to decline more markedly following November's eye-popping jump to 69.1—an all-time high—and given the likely initial impact from Omicron. The MFG index probably fell below the 60 mark for the first time in four months. Anything over 60 is exceptionally strong.''

The Federal Open Market Committee minutes Following the FOMC's decision to double the pace of QE tapering and the projection of a significantly more hawkish dot plot will be the focus before then.

''Focus will now turn to the elements that led to the evolution of views among policymakers (including on "maximum employment") after the November meeting,'' analysts at TD Securities said.