Forexpros –
Forexpros – The euro moved lower against the U.S. dollar in early trade Friday, after the release of data showing payrolls in the U.S. remained flat.
EUR/USD hit 1.4288 in early U.S. trade, the pair’s highest since Thursday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.4219, falling 0.27%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.4105, the low of August 11, and resistance at 1.4549, Monday’s high.
A U.S. Labor Department report Friday, showed that non-farm payrolls made no gains in August after a 85,000 rise in the previous month.
Market expectations were for non-farm payrolls to increase by 74,000 in August.
Unemployment held steady at 9.1% in August, mirroring the July figure and in line with economist’s forecasts, according to the Labor Department report.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget, on Thursday, forecast that unemployment would average 8.8% this year, down from an earlier estimate of 9.3%.
The office added that the federal budget deficit would fall to USD1.32 trillion in 2011, down from the USD1.64 trillion estimated in the 2012 fiscal budget.
Wall Street shares reacted with steep losses early in Friday’s session, as investors had hoped for an improvement in labor conditions following a dismal August that saw European debt woes unresolved and a first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 1.56% to 11,314.20, the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.54% to 2,506.77, and the S&P 500 dropped 1.74%. to 1,183.43.
In late European trading, France’s CAC was down 3.63% to 3,146.98, Britain’s FTSE 100 sank 2.52% to 5,282.15 and Germany’s DAX was sharply lower by 3.78% to 5,513.75.
Meanwhile, the euro was lower against both the British pound and the Japanese yen, with EUR/GBP down by 0.52% to hit 0.8766, and EUR/JPY falling 0.57% to hit 109.04.
U.S. markets were to be closed Monday for the Labor Day Holiday.
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