The U.S. dollar traded lower against other major opponents during Asian trading on Monday as a better than expected U.S. August payrolls data released on Friday encouraged traders to buy higher-yielding assets.
The greenback dropped to a 5-day low against the pound and multi-week lows against the euro, Canadian dollar, Aussie and the New Zealand dollar.
U.S. non-farm payrolls for August came in better than expected, easing speculation that a recovery in the world’s largest economy could slow more sharply ahead.
The U.S. Labor Department report showed on Friday that non-farm payroll employment fell by 54,000 jobs in August, matching the revised decrease in jobs seen in July. Economists had expected employment to fall by about 120,000 jobs compared to the loss of 131,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Despite the smaller than expected decrease in non-farm employment, the unemployment rate still edged up to 9.6 percent in August from 9.5 percent in July. The modest increase in the unemployment rate came in line with economist estimates.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 2.05%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1.3%, China’s Shangai composite index soared 1.45%, New Zealand’s NZX 50 index gained 1.15%, South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.7% and Taiwan’s main index edged up 0.8%. Australia’s S&P 200 index and the All Ordinaries index climbed 0.8% each.
The greenback edged down against the European common currency in Asian deals and currently trading near a 19-day low of 1.2911. The pair closed last week’s New York session at 1.2895.
Against its British counterpart, the greenback showed weakness in today’s Asian session and slipped to a 5-day high of 1.5491 by about 2:00 am ET, compared to Friday’s closing value of 1.5467.
The US currency plunged to new multi-week lows of 0.7235 against the NZ dollar and 0.9179 versus the Australian dollar in Asian trading today, compared to last week’s closing values of 0.7210 and 0.9170, respectively. As of now, the greenback is worth 0.7224 against the kiwi and 0.9171 versus the Aussie.
The U.S. dollar that closed last Friday’s North American session at 1.0384 against the Canadian dollar traded lower in Asian session and presently trading near a 3-week low of 1.0378.
Looking ahead, the Eurozone Sentix investor confidence report for September and trade balance data for July are expected in the upcoming hours.
The U.S. financial markets are closed today for Labor Day.
