By Victor Reklaitis and Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch)--The dollar dropped against most major
rivals on Friday in the wake of a worse-than-expected jobs report,
though it erased some losses by day's end and still gained for the
week.
While the greenback lost ground Friday, its trend for the summer
has been up. The oft-cited reason for the advance is that as the
U.S. economy improves, the Federal Reserve is winding down its
bond-buying program and is seen hiking interest rates next year--in
contrast with the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank.
But the jobs report indicated some weakness. The U.S. economy
created just 142,000 jobs in August, while economists polled by
MarketWatch had expected an increase of 228,000.
Matt Weller, senior technical analyst at Forex.com, said his
shop expects the dollar uptrend will resume. "From a trading
perspective, the reaction to the payrolls miss was sharp but
relatively shallow," he also said in emailed comments.
The euro rose Friday after falling to a 14-month low as the
European Central Bank on Thursday cut interest rates and announced
a "private QE" program in an effort to fight off low inflation.
(Read more: The reluctant firefighters at the ECB start dousing the
flames
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-reluctant-firefighters-at-the-ecb-start-dousing-the-flames-2014-09-04.)
The shared currency (EURUSD) was recently at $1.2956, up from
$1.2944 in late North American trade on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the dollar (USDJPY) fell against the yen to buy
Yen105.07, from Yen105.26 late Thursday in New York. The pound
(GBPUSD) declined to trade at $1.6326, compared with $1.6344 on
Thursday.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which tracks the U.S. currency
against a basket of major rivals, traded recently at 83.753, down
from 83.820 late Thursday in New York. The index still gained for
the week, rising from 82.721 on Aug. 29.
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