Thursday, May 10, 2007

Dollar Slid on Weaker-than-Expected Payrolls

The dollar pared some of its gains after US Labor Department reported the economy added fewer jobs than expected in April. The greenback weakened to 1.3610 versus the dollar and tested 120 level against the yen.

US non-farm payrolls came out at 88k, below the consensus of 100k. March payrolls were revised slightly downward from 180k to 177k. The unemployment rate rose as expected from 4.4% to 4.5%. Average earnings rose 0.2% in April, below the forecast and previous month’s reading of 0.3%. Following the weaker than expected report, the dollar failed to retain its gains from robust manufacturing data released earlier this week. The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates later in the year, while the ECB and BOE are likely to raise rates further. The dollar moves back and forth this week against the euro and sterling around the lows, however the overall sentiment over the dollar is still tilted to negative.

Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar edged up against the dollar after a report showed Canada Ivey PMI fell from 67.7 to 60.9 in April.

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