U.S. Dollar Retreats After Weak Employment Report
July 02 2015 - 9:36AM
RTTF2
The U.S. dollar gave up its early advance against the other
major currencies on Thursday, as weekly jobless claims rose
unexpectedly last week and jobs growth slowed in June, while
jobless rate fell to a 7-year low, indicating an uneven recovery in
labor.
Data from the Labor Department showed that non-farm payroll
employment increased by 223,000 jobs, modestly below the addition
of 230,000 jobs anticipated by economists.
The report also showed downward revisions to the pace of job
growth in April and May, with the revised data showing increases of
187,000 jobs and 254,000 jobs, respectively.
Nonetheless, the unemployment rate still fell to 5.3 percent in
June from 5.5 percent in May. Economists had expected the
unemployment rate to dip to 5.4 percent.
The bigger than expected decrease pulled the unemployment rate
down to its lowest level since hitting 5.0 percent in April of
2008.
Separate data showed an unexpected increase in initial jobless
claims in the week ended June 27th.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 281,000, an
increase of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of
271,000. The modest increase surprised economists, who had expected
jobless claims to edge down to 270,000.
The currency was higher in the previous session, on the back of
a slew of strong economic data released on Wednesday. On Wednesday,
the greenback rose 1.42 percent against the franc, 0.61 percent
against the yen, 0.65 percent against the pound and 0.80 percent
against the euro.
The greenback was trading at 123.22 against the yen, reversing
from an early 6-day high of 123.71. The greenback is likely to find
support around the 122.00 zone.
The greenback, having advanced to a 5-week high of 0.9503
against the franc at 8:15 am ET, reversed direction with pair
trading at 0.9444. Continuation of the greenback's downtrend may
see it challenging support around the 0.93 mark.
The greenback retreated from an early 3-day high of 1.1031
against the euro and more than a 2-week high of 1.5561 against the
pound and was trading at 1.1120 and 1.5639, respectively. The next
likely support for the greenback may be located around 1.12 against
the euro and 1.57 against the pound.
The greenback eased back to 0.7642 against the aussie, 0.6714
against the kiwi and 1.2558 against the loonie, after advancing to
a 3-day high of 0.7589, 5-year high of 0.6654 and 2-1/2-month high
of 1.2632, respectively in prior deals. On the downside, the
greenback is likely to find support around 0.78 against the aussie,
0.68 against the kiwi and 1.25 against the loonie.
At 10:00 am ET, U.S. factory orders data for May is due.
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