* Dollar down broadly as jobs data nears consensus call * Euro jumps 1.2 pct vs dollar , Swiss franc gains * Dollar yen cuts losses but still down on day (Updates prices, adds quotes, changes dateline, byline) By Steven C. Johnson NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - The dollar fell broadly on Friday after data showing the U.S. economy cut more than half a million jobs again last month and the jobless rate soared, which reinforced worries of a deepening U.S. recession. The dollar was down even before the data showed employers cut 651,000 jobs in February, pushing the jobless rate to its highest level since late 1983. [ID:ID:nN05339652] Because the report was not as bad as some had expected, however, stock futures rose into positive territory and investors extended purchases of euros and other currencies against the dollar. It cut earlier losses, however, against the Japanese yen. "Clearly, this was a bad number, but was much better than some of the the market's disastrous expectations," said Omer Esiner, senior market analyst at Reusch International in Washington. "We were hearing whisper numbers of upwards of 700,000 and even 1 million." He said the "knee-jerk reaction is to sell the dollar against the euro and to buy the dollar versus the yen." The euro was last up 1.3 percent at $1.2719 while the dollar was down 0.4 percent at 97.60 yen , though it did pare even bigger losses against the Japanese currency after the data was released. Sterling rose 0.9 percent to $1.4262 and the dollar fell 1.3 percent to 1.1540 Swiss francs . The dollar lately has tended to rise in response to bad news because investors see it as the safest store of value at a time when economies across the globe are contracting sharply. Its role as a main funding currency outside Europe has also enhanced its safe-haven status during the crisis. Todd Elmer, senior currency strategist at Citigroup in New York, said the dollar weakness was unlikely to persist. "Currencies have been reacting less in recent weeks to fundamental factors and more to strains in the financial sector," he said. Brian Kim, a currency strategist at UBS in Stamford, Connecticut, agreed, writing in a note to clients on Friday that "dollar assets remain an attractive option to risk averse investors, especially as other central bank rates converge to zero and more unconventional policies are implemented." Both the European Central Bank and Bank of England cut interest rates to record lows this week, with the latter also saying it will start buying government bonds to boost growth. (Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

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