MW:Dollar drops before U.S. jobs, looking past ECB
By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — The dollar declined against the euro and some other major currencies Friday, as investors looked ahead to likely lackluster U.S. nonfarm payrolls data later in the day.
The ICE dollar index DXY -0.43% , which measures the currency against a basket of six major rivals, fell to 83.242 from 83.320 in North American trade late Thursday.
The WSJ dollar index XX:BUXX -0.38% , which gauges the greenback’s moves against some of the other heavily traded global currencies, dropped to 72.11 from 72.20.
A day after the European Central Bank disappointed markets by not meeting expectations for bold measures to ease the region’s debt crisis, the euro EURUSD +0.49% was changing hands at $1.2195 from $1.218.
Economists polled by MarketWatch forecast a net gain of 100,000 jobs in July, enough to absorb the increase in the U.S. labor force, but too slow to lower the country’s high unemployment rate of 8.2%. July nonfarm payrolls preview
“Having been disappointed by both the [Federal Open Market Committee] and then ECB this week, the onus seems to lie with a soft [jobs] number today to reassure markets that central banks’ balance sheets will be expanding further in the near term,” said Michael Turner, a fixed income and currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets.
Among other major currencies, the British pound GBPUSD +0.32% was trading at $1.5531, up from $1.5515, while the Australian dollar AUDUSD +0.56% climbed to $1.0503 from $1.046.
Against the Japanese currency, the greenback USDJPY +0.01% was changing hands for ÂĄ78.19, little changed from ÂĄ78.20 in New York Thursday.
Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.
