Markets price expectations, not numbers

A "good" jobs number can send an index down. This confuses new traders until they internalise one idea: prices already contain a forecast. What moves markets is the difference between what was expected and what happened, filtered through what that difference implies for the next thing — usually interest rates.

The three channels

Rates — data that changes the expected path of policy rates moves bond yields first, then currencies. A hot inflation print lifts yields, which usually lifts the currency.
Risk appetite — genuinely bad news pushes capital out of equities and into government bonds and gold. This is the "risk-off" reflex.
Growth — data that changes the earnings outlook moves equity indices and cyclical commodities (copper, oil) directly.

Which instrument sits on which channel

This is the practical mapping that matters for a CFD trader:

FX — almost pure rates channel. EUR/USD is largely a bet on the Fed minus the ECB.
Indices — growth and risk channel, but also rates (high rates compress equity valuations).
Gold — real rates channel. Gold has no yield, so when real yields fall, gold's opportunity cost falls.
Oil and copper — growth channel, plus supply specifics that have nothing to do with macro.

Why this is hard

The same print can push two channels in opposite directions. Strong growth is good for equities (earnings) but bad for equities (higher rates compress multiples). Which one wins depends on where the market's attention already is — and that changes over time. There is no stable lookup table, and any course claiming otherwise is selling something.

How to check this yourself

Open two currency pairs that share the US dollar — EUR/USD and USD/JPY work well — and put their daily changes side by side for a week. Count how often they move in opposite directions on the same day. That is the dollar doing the work, and the dollar is a rates story. Seeing it in real quotes teaches more than any explanation can.