Dollar Slides Against Majors As Unemployment Rate Leaves Unchanged
The US currency edged down against major currencies following the announcement of unemployment rate during New York morning deals on Friday. The greenback slipped to new multi-month lows against the euro and the yen, fresh multi-day lows against its British and Swiss counterparts today.
The U.S. Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate came in unchanged compared to the previous month at 9.5 percent, reflecting a decrease in the size of the labor force. The unemployment rate had been expected to edge up to 9.6 percent.
The Labor Department also said that non-farm payroll employment fell by 131,000 jobs in July following a revised decrease of 221,000 jobs in June. Economists had expected employment to drop by 87,000 jobs compared to the loss of 125,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
After edging up slightly in early morning session, the greenback plunged against the euro in New York deals today. At present, the greenback is trading near a new multi-month low of 1.3314 versus the euro from early high of 1.3159. The pair closed yesterday’s New York session at 1.3191.
Extending previous session downward trading, the dollar declined further against the Japanese yen and fell to a fresh multi-month low of 85.08 by about 9:00 am ET. The dollar-yen pair was worth 85.85 at Thursday’s close.
The greenback drifted lower further against the British pound and the Swiss franc in today’s North American trading and presently trading at new multi-day lows of 1.5986 and 1.0370, respectively. The dollar closed yesterday’s New York session at 1.5899 against the sterling and 1.0461 versus the franc.
The US currency also traded lower against its Australian and New Zealand counterparts in morning deals today. As of now, the greenback is worth a new multi-month low of 0.9210 against the Aussie from yesterday’s close of 0.9165. The buck also edged down and currently trading at 0.7344.
