The dollar slipped on Friday after data showed US employers added the fewest jobs in eight months, eroding confidence in the economy and reviving bets that the Federal Reserve might leave interest rates near zero for longer than anticipated. The US Labour Department said nonfarm payrolls grew by 142,000 last month, far below the 225,000 forecast by analysts polled by Reuters.
The greenback scaled back from a nearly six-year high against the yen set in earlier trading. It managed to close 0.9 percent higher on the week above 105 yen, which has not happened since January. The euro recovered from a 14-month low against the dollar the day after a surprise interest rate cut from the European Central Bank to help an anemic euro zone economy. The currency was still on track for its eighth week of losses against the dollar, the longest since it was introduced in January 1999.
"This payrolls report gives the currency market a reason to embark on a mild correction on the dollar," said Mark McCormick, currency strategist at Credit Agricole in New York. The dollar's decline was mitigated by news of a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists. The fighting had stoked safe-haven bids for the yen and the Swiss franc.
While the August reading on US hiring fell far short of the median forecast, an increase in hourly earnings and a gauge on long-term joblessness were more promising. That data, along with this week's robust figures on domestic manufacturing and car sales, supported the view that the world's biggest economy was expanding at a steady clip. This should keep the US central bank on course to raise the policy rate from near zero into mid-2015, analysts said. "The market will likely begin to discount this jobs report as we head into the next Fed meeting," McCormick said.
The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policy-setting group, will meet September 16-17. The dollar on the EBS trading system last traded down 0.21 percent at 105.035 yen after it touched a nearly six-year high of 105.71 in Asian trading. The greenback was on track to rise against the yen for the fourth straight week, the longest stretch this year.
The euro clung to a 0.1 percent gain against the dollar at $1.2954 after shedding 1.6 percent on Thursday, its steepest fall in almost three years, to a 14-month low of $1.2920 after the ECB cut rates to record lows and launched a bond purchase program to avert deflation. The rebound in the euro and yen pushed the dollar index below a 14-month high of 83.943 struck on Friday. It was last at 83.740, down 0.1 percent on the day but up 1.2 percent on the week. Some analysts reckoned until US bond yields breaks higher, the dollar has likely reached a top in the near term.
"We need to see a substantial rise in US yields for the dollar to gain further," said Eric Viloria, currency strategist at Wells Fargo Securities in New York. Benchmark 10-year Treasuries yields ended the week 12 basis points higher at 2.46 percent, the highest close in nearly four weeks.