MW: Dollar falls against yen, euro after jobless claims
Investors turn to jobless claims, import data
By Ben Eisen, MarketWatch , Tatsuo Ito
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar slipped against the euro and Japanese yen as investors digested lackluster U.S. jobs data.
The dollar USDJPY +0.04% slipped to ¥102.34 Thursday morning in New York from ¥102.45 late Wednesday. The greenback had climbed as high as ¥102.66 during the Japanese trading day, the highest since Aug. 5.
The euro EURUSD +0.08% climbed to $1.3396 from $1.3365 late Wednesday. The dollar index DXY -0.09% , which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of its rivals fell to 81.455 on Thursday from 81.606 late Wednesday.
The dollar slipped after U.S. data showed that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose to a six-week high last week. Jobless claims rose by 21,000 to 31,000, higher than the 300,000 expected by Wall Street.
A U.S. import price index fell 0.2% in July.
Benchmark Treasury yields fell, gold prices rose, while stocks were flat.
The dollar fell against the South Korean won after the Bank of Korea decided to cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage point. The market move was seen as typical case of “buy the rumor and sell the news.”
The rate cut had been mostly priced in since rumors started circulating in July, one trader said. The dollar USDKRW -0.80% was at 1,020.9 Korean won from Wednesday’s close of 1,028.9. Korean won.
The U.K. pound GBPUSD -0.02% was little changed Thursday at $1.6690, after falling Wednesday on a lackluster report on U.K. wage growth that raised the prospect that the central bank would push back the timing of an interest-rate increase.
