ABC: Dollar Slips Against Euro, Rises Against Others
Dollar slips against euro as Europe bank worries ease, but rises against most other currencies
The dollar slipped against the euro Wednesday, but rose in relation to most other currencies after a private report on U.S. employment showed a smaller-than-expected number of job gains.
Lingering high unemployment in the U.S., the world's largest economy, is a big part of the reason why growth is expected to slow in the second quarter.
In midday trading in New York, the euro rose to $1.2283 from $1.2209 late Tuesday.
The European Central Bank said that it would lend 131.9 billion euros to banks for three months, a day before 442 billion euros in 12-month loans comes due.
Analysts had worried that if a large number of banks subscribed to Wednesday's ECB loans, that implied weakness in European banks' ability to get funding. The ECB said 171 institutions got three-month loans, while 1,121 institutions had received the 12-month loans a year ago.
The "relatively low demand" for new central bank loans helped bolster the euro, said Brown Brothers Harriman analysts.
In other trading Wednesday, the British pound fell to $1.4962 from $1.5081.
The U.S. currency also gained to 1.0613 Canadian dollars from 1.0550 Canadian dollars, and was higher versus the Australian and New Zealand dollars. All three, which are big commodity exporters, tend to fall when economic confidence falls.
The dollar dropped to 1.0763 Swiss francs from 1.0807 francs, and was nearly flat versus Japan's currency at 88.51 yen from 88.49 yen.
Like the dollar, the franc and the yen are considered safe havens.
Driving the appeal for "safer" assets was a report from payroll company ADP, which said that private-sector employers added 13,000 jobs in June, down from 57,000 in May. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected 60,000 jobs to be added this month.
A lower U.S. unemployment rate, which was 9.7 percent in May, is crucial to the economy's recovery. The Labor Department is releasing jobs data for June on Friday. Economists expect the unemployment rate to rise to 9.8 percent, and for 110,000 jobs to be cut as people hired earlier this year by the federal government for temporary work on the census are laid off.
