By Gina Lee
The dollar was down on Monday morning, with investors retreating from the safe-haven asset after the U.S. released a better-than-expected employment report on Friday.
The jobless rate was 13.3% in May, down from April’s 14.7%, according to the Labor Department’s employment report released on Friday. The U.S. non-farm payroll also increased by 2.5 million, against analyst expectations of an 8-million drop.
The U.S. Dollar Index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies fell 0.05% to 96.873 by 11:51 AM ET (4:51 AM GMT).
The USD/JPY pair was down 0.07% to 109.50.
“Commodities and emerging market currencies are clearly finding it easier to rise against the dollar on hopes of economic recovery, but it is a different story when it comes to the yen...for dollar/yen the focus is more on yields, which is pushing the currency pair higher,” Junichi Ishikawa, senior foreign exchange strategist at IG Securities, told Reuters.
The USD/CNY pair gained 0.04% to 7.0838. Data released by China on Sunday showed that the world’s second largest economy was still recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 virus, with Imports shrinking by a larger-than-expected 16.7% in May year-on-year. Exports shrinking by 3.3%.
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.09% to 0.6975 and the NZD/USD pair jumped 0.22% to 0.6520. The Antipodean currencies, considered riskier compared to the USD or JPY, took advantage of the improved risk sentiment to edge towards levels last seen in January.
The GBP/USD pair gained 0.32% to 1.2704.
