Dollar rises after disappointing US jobs report
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E-mail Xinhua, May 5, 2012
The U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies for the fifth consecutive trading session on Friday as disappointing U.S. jobs report forced investors to flee into safe havens.
The Labor Department said U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 115,000 in April, less than the increase of 120,000 in March and missing expectation of 170,000. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.2 percent a month earlier. The disappointing jobs report weighed heavily in equities and commodities, triggering large scale of sell-off. Safe havens of the dollar and the Japanese yen became the hiding places for panic capital.
Meanwhile, worries about euro zone's economic outlook kept pressuring the euro. Elections in Greece and France made the markets nervous as investors feared that French president challenger Francois Horlande would bring political uncertainties to Europe's economic future as he had different opinion from Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in some crucial problems.
In late Friday trading, the euro declined to 1.3089 dollars from 1.3151 dollars, after dipping to three-week low of 1.3078. The dollar rose to 0.9956 Canadian dollars from 0.9887, and gained to 0.9177 Swiss francs from 0.9135. The British pound fell to 1. 6147 dollars from 1.6181.
The dollar bought 79.87 Japanese yen, higher than 80.29 in the previous session.
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