The euro recovered a tad on Monday on Asian buying after lunar new year holidays, though it remained on shaky ground after a jump in US Treasury yields undermined its yield advantage. With many market players still seen caught in euro long positions, the euro risks extending a retreat from last week's 12-week high that started after the head of the European Central Bank sounded less concerned about inflation than many expected.
A rise in January US payrolls shown in data released on Friday was much smaller than expected, but traders concluded the figure was affected by severe snow storms and instead focused on a sharp drop in the jobless rate. The unemployment rate fell to 9.0 percent in January, compared to 9.8 percent in November, marking its biggest two-month decline since 1958.
While the report is unlikely to prevent the Federal Reserve from completing its $600 billion government bond-buying programme to support the economy, signs of underlying strength in the labour market boosted US bond yields. The euro rose to $1.3610, up 0.2 percent from US levels late on Friday, when it fell as low as $1.3543, its lowest in nearly two weeks.
Asian players were also buying the British pound and the Swiss franc. The pound rose 0.1 percent to $1.6130 while the dollar fell 0.15 percent against franc to 0.9535. The euro's fall came after currency speculators raised their bets on it for the week to February 1 to the most since late October, meaning it could fall if the market unwinds more of the bets.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was down 0.2 percent at 77.878 but well off a three-month low of 76.881 plumbed on Wednesday. The dollar was little changed against the yen at 82.20 yen, after having risen more than 1 yen from one-month low of 81.10 yen hit seconds after the US payroll data on Friday.
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