Dollar weak in Asia after tepid jobs data

AFP FILE PHOTO

TOKYO – The dollar was under pressure in Asia on Monday after lackluster US jobs data and exporter selling weighed on the unit.

The greenback fetched 98.73 yen in Tokyo midday trade, down from 98.89 yen in New York Friday afternoon and sharply lower from around 99.50 yen in Tokyo on Friday.

The euro bought $1.3277 and 131.09 yen Monday against $1.3279 and 131.35 yen in US trade.

The dollar skidded Friday after the US Labor Department released monthly employment data, which investors watched closely to gather clues about the future direction of the Federal Reserve’s monetary-easing programme. The Fed has said it planned to wind down the stimulus once the economy had cemented a record.

The data showed the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.4 percent in July from 7.6 percent in June, but the world’s largest economy added only 162,000 jobs during the month, far short of expectations.

Some traders attributed the dollar’s decline Monday to the unit failing to creep back over the 100 yen mark, prompting speculators to reduce their bets on a weakening of the yen. Selling demand from Japanese exporters also held back the dollar’s advance, they said.

“It looks tough to breach that (100 yen) level as exporters are likely to ramp up their sales before their summer holidays (next week),” Osamu Takashima, chief FX strategist at Citigroup Global Markets Japan, said in a note.