Market Review – 03/12/2010 20:34 GMT
The greenback tumbles broadly on surprisingly weak U.S. jobs report
The dollar dropped sharply against most of its counterparts on Friday as data indicated U.S. non-farm payrolls created far less than expected. U.S. non-farm payroll added a mere 390,000 jobs compared to street forecast of 150,000 whilst private payrolls only increased by 50,000 versus forecast of 158,000 and last but not least, U.S. unemployment rate surged to 9.8% from previous month’s reading of 9.6%.
Despite the rebound fm 83.47 to 83.84 in NY morning, the greenback tanked to an intra-day low of 82.53 against the Japanese yen after the release of disappointing U.S. jobs report and the usd/chf pair also tumbled from around 0.9938 to as low as 0.9725 in NY afternoon.
Although the single currency traded sideways in Asia, buying interest at 1.3199/00 lifted euro in European morning n price rose to 1.3270 later as continued buying of eurozone periphery bonds by ECB pushed bond yields lower, supporting the single currency. Later, despite the knee-jerk move after the release of surprisingly weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data, the single currency then rallied to a session high of 1.3438 in late NY session after a CBS website reported that Federal Reserve Bank chief Ben Bernanke did not rule out the purchase of more than $600 bln of treasury bonds in further quantitative easing and euro closed near the day’s high. The Aussie dollar and New Zealand dollar also rose sharply fm 0.9739 to 0.9938 n 0.7545 to 0.7676 respectively against the greenback on Friday.
Economic data to be released next week include:
U.K. Halifax hse price n Canada Building permit n Ivey PMI on Monday; Japan GDP, U.K. BRC retail sales, Australia RBA rate decision, Japan leading indicators, Swiss Jobless rate, U.K. Industrial production n manufacturing production, Germany Industrial production, Canada rate decision on Tuesday; Japan Trade Balance, Current Account, Machine Order n Economic Watch DI, Germany Trade Balance, Export n Import, Current Account, Industrial Production, U.K. CBI orders, Canada Housing starts on Wednesday; New Zealand rate decision, Japan GDP , Australia Unemployment change n employment change, Germany CPI, U.K. Trade Balance, BOE rate decision, U.S. jobless claims n wholesale inventories on Thursday; Japan Domestic CGPI, U.K. PPI, Trade Balance, US. Trade Balance, Export n Import data, The University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Survey n Fed Budget, Canada Trade Balance on Friday.