Dollar Loses Ground Against Major Rivals After Jobs Data
(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar turned weak against its major counterparts on Friday after softer-than-expected jobs data eased concerns about the rate outlook.
Data released by the Labor Department this morning showed non-farm payroll employment jumped by 209,000 jobs in June after surging by a downwardly revised 306,000 in May.
Economists had expected employment to shoot up by 225,000 jobs compared to the spike of 339,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The unemployment rate edged down to 3.6% in June from 3.7% in May, in line with economist estimates.
The Federal Reserve is still widely expected to raise interest rates by another quarter point later this month, but the jobs data has led to renewed optimism that will be the end of the central bank's rate-hiking cycle.
The dollar index dropped to 102.23, losing more than 0.9%.
Against the Euro, the dollar weakened to 1.0969 from 1.0893. Against Pound Sterling, it dropped to 1.2835.
The dollar is trading sharply down against the Japanese currency, falling to 142.11 yen a unit, compared with 144.07 yen a unit on Thursday.
Against the Aussie, the dollar weakened to 0.6690, losing about 1%, and against Swiss franc, it eased by about 0.7%, fetching CHF 0.8891 a unit.
The dollar is weak against the loonie at C$1.3278 as a sharp surge in crude oil prices supports the Canadian currency.
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