Around 8:50 p.m., the dollar lost 0.80% against the single European currency – which found a two-month high – at 1.2162 dollars.
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The dollar was down sharply after European stock markets closed on Friday against the euro and the British currency, undermined by disappointing US employment data released earlier today.
Around 6:50 p.m. GMT, the dollar lost 0.80% against the single European currency – which found a two-month high, at 1.2162 dollar. It dropped 0.74% against the pound sterling, at 1.3992 dollars.
Job creations in the United States were disappointing in April: a total of 266,000 jobs were created last month against 770,000 in March and very far from the expected million, the Labor Department announced on Friday.
Last month, the unemployment rate even rose slightly, after falling since May. It stood at 6.1%, against 6% in March, when analysts saw it decline to 5.8%.
“The prospect of a more uneven US recovery is undermining the greenback,” commented Michael Hewson, CMC Markets analyst.
Mixed data like this should lead the US Federal Reserve (Fed) “to stay more flexible longer,” added Neil Wilson of Markets.com. However, maintaining low key rates makes the dollar less attractive to currency traders.
Gold and bitcoin also benefited from the weak dollar: the yellow metal gained 0.84% to 1,830.55 dollars an ounce, the highest since February 11, when the cryptocurrency appreciated by 3.75% to $ 58,056.
The pound sterling stabilized against the euro, quoting 86.91 pence, the day after the unsurprising announcement by the Bank of England (BoE) of an unchanged key rate.
The monetary institution maintained Thursday at 0.1%, a historic low, while boosting its growth forecast for this year to 7.25% thanks to “stronger than expected activity”.
Currency traders were also monitoring Thursday’s election results in Scotland, where the regional parliament is being renewed.
A victory for the separatists of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP), the formation of Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, could pave the way for a new self-determination referendum, a situation which could weaken the British currency according to analysts.
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