Dollar gains on employment data

Story link: Dollar gains on employment data

The US dollar saw gains for the third consecutive day on Friday after the Labor Department reported that 94,000 jobs were created in November, down from October’s number but more than had been expected, and that the unemployment rate remained at 4.7 percent when analysts had anticipated that it would rise to 4.8 percent.

The new numbers signaled that while the economy might be slowing, there will likely not be a recession.

In early afternoon trade in New York it took ¥111.7050 to buy a dollar, slightly less than the ¥111.79 it took earlier in the session, while at the same time the dollar traded at $1.4657 to the euro and at $2.0278 to the pound.

The euro managed a gain of 0.1 percent on the greenback for the week after Thursday’s decision by the European Central Bank to keep interest rates at 4 percent.

The yen was weaker again as investors were willing to take more risks with their money after the announcement, also Thursday, of a US plan to help out some homeowners by freezing interest rates on select subprime mortgages.

In afternoon trade the yen traded at ¥163.7260 to the euro, at ¥226.5197 to the pound, and at ¥97.9932 to the Australian dollar.

The Swiss franc also weakened with the return to risk as it took SFr1.1295 to buy one dollar, SFr1.6556 to buy a euro, and SFr2.2905 to buy a pound.