By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. dollar rose slightly versus the Japanese yen but lost ground to the euro as a mixed tone in equity markets spurred consolidation in currency trading on Wednesday.
The dollar's inverse relationship with investors' appetite for risky assets has reasserted itself in recent weeks, strategists said, with the dollar losing ground as equities posted a strong global rally and investors rushed into assets perceived as more risky. Reduced risk appetite has tended to support the dollar.
"For the most part, range-trading has dominated foreign-exchange markets," said Jane Foley, research director at Forex.com. "A softer to mixed performance in stocks and a moderate fall in treasury yields reflects slight risk aversion this morning which is affording the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen a little support on many of the crosses."
ADP on Wednesday said 371,000 U.S. private-sector jobs were lost in July. On Friday, the government will report on its estimate for nonfarm payrolls, with economists surveyed by MarketWatch looking for a loss of 275,000 jobs, which would be the fewest since August.
The dollar strengthened slightly versus the euro and lost ground versus the yen after the data, but the moves were small.
U.S. stock index futures remained on the defensive after the data, while European indexes were higher. See Indications. Read Europe Markets.
One dollar bought 95.26 yen, little changed from 95.25 yen in late North American trading on Tuesday.
The dollar index (DXY 77.64, -0.13, -0.17%) , which tracks the U.S. unit against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, traded at 77.629, down slightly from 77.720 late Tuesday.
The euro bought $1.4396, little changed from $1.4399 late Tuesday.
The British pound traded at $1.7005, boosted by a raft of favorable economic data, including a 1.1% monthly rise in the July Halifax house price index and an unexpectedly strong jump in the July CIPS/Markit services purchasing managers index. See full story.
