Forexpros – The U.S. dollar was trading in a narrow range against its major counterparts on Monday, after Friday’s surprisingly weak U.S. employment data sparked fears over a slowdown in the global economy, while worries about the euro zone also weighed on investor sentiment.
During European morning trade, the dollar was trading within striking distance of a near two-year low against the euro, with EUR/USD slipping 0.12% to hit 1.2420.
The U.S. economy added just 69,000 jobs in May, far below expectations for a gain of 150,000, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2% from 8.1%.
The disappointing data added to concerns that the euro zone crisis is having a negative impact on global growth and fuelled speculation over the prospect for a third round of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve.
But sentiment on the euro remained negative amid fears that Spain’s high borrowing costs would force Madrid to seek outside financial aid to bailout its ailing banking sector.
Earlier Monday, data showed that the Sentix index of investor confidence in the euro zone deteriorated to the lowest level since July 2009 this month.
The greenback was little changed against the pound, with GBP/USD inching up 0.03% to hit 1.5467.
Trade volumes were expected to remain light on Monday, as markets in the U.K. were to remain closed for a national holiday.
Elsewhere, the greenback was steady against the safe haven yen, with USD/JPY inching up 0.01% to hit 78.01.
The yen remained supported after the governor of the Bank of Japan said Monday that the central bank was closely monitoring the impact of the yen’s recent gains on Japan’s largely export driven economy, and held back from indicating if the bank is planning any further monetary easing in the short-term.
The greenback was fractionally higher against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF easing up 0.08% to hit 0.9667.
The greenback was broadly higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD edging up 0.08% to hit 1.0419, AUD/USD shedding 0.31% to hit 0.9669 and NZD/USD sliding 0.13% to hit 0.7536.
Earlier Monday, official data showed that Australian company profits fell 4.0% in the first quarter, led lower by a 13% fall in mining profits and a 10% fall in manufacturing profits. Economists had expected a decline of 2.1%.
A separate report showed that job advertisements in Australia declined by 2.4% in May after a 0.8% fall the previous month.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, inched up 0.07%, to trade at 82.97.
Later Monday, the U.S. was to release official data on factory orders.
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