U.S. Dollar Gives Back Ground Ahead Of Monthly Jobs Report

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar has moved to the downside during trading on Thursday, giving back ground after trending higher over the past few sessions.

Currently, the U.S. dollar index is off its worst levels of the day but still down 0.55 points or 0.5 percent at 103.60.

The greenback has tumbled to 143.96 yen versus the 147.31 yen it fetched at the close of New York trading on Wednesday.

The jump by the yen comes as comments from Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda suggested the central bank will end its negative interest-rate policy soon.

Against the euro, the dollar is valued at $1.0792 compared to yesterday's $1.0764.

The pullback by the value of the U.S. dollar also comes as traders look ahead to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.

Economists currently expect employment to increase by 180,000 jobs in November after rising by 150,000 jobs in October, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.9 percent.

The jobs report could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

While the Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, traders will be looking to the jobs data to provide further evidence the central bank could cut rates as soon as March 2024.

A day ahead of the release of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report showing a slight uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended December 2nd.

The report said initial jobless claims ticked up to 220,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level of 219,000.

Economist had expected jobless claims to rise to 222,000 from the 218,000 originally reported for the previous week.