The US dollar edged sharply lower against its major counterparts in early New York trading on Friday following the disappointing employment report signaled that the U.S. economic recovery may be losing steam.
According to the report released by the Labor Department, the U.S. economy added an anemic 18,000 jobs in June, well below the 105,000 predicted by most economists and well below the average of 215,000 posted from February through April.
In addition, the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2 percent in June from 9.1 percent in May, which was also up slightly from April.
The dollar slid following the data, shedding almost 90 pips against the yen and a more than 100 pips against the pound to hit multi-day lows of 80.57 and 1.6048, respectively around 9:00 am ET. On the downside, the greenback may find target levels at 1.61 against the pound and 80.20 versus the yen.
The greenback also reached as low as 0.8387 against the Swiss franc and 1.4352 versus the euro before hovering in that levels by this time. If the buck weakens further, it may find target levels at 0.8370 against the franc and 1.4365 against the euro.