YEREVAN, April 4. /ARKA/. The dollar fell across the board on Wednesday after a report showed the U.S. private sector created fewer jobs than expected last month, raising concerns that recovery in the world’s largest economy has stalled, Reuters reported.
The weaker-than expected ADP national employment report followed soft U.S. manufacturing data on Monday which suggested that the economy, on fire the last few weeks due to a run of strong data, has lost some momentum. Still analysts were willing to suspend judgment until Friday’s U.S. non-farm payrolls report.
The ADP on Wednesday reported an increase of 158,000 in private employment, much lower than the consensus forecast of 200,000. It did revise February’s number to 237,000 from its initial reading of 198,000, but that did little to lift sentiment.
“The disappointing headline did dent some of the recent optimism surrounding the U.S. recovery and the overall improvement in labor markets,” said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.
“While the ADP and broader non-farm payroll numbers have not had the closest correlation over recent months, investors are likely to go into Friday’s jobs report a bit more cautious.”
Analysts were forecasting U.S. payrolls to hit 200,000 in March, with the unemployment rate seen holding steady at 7.7 percent.
The dollar index slipped 0.1 percent 82.822.
The euro hit session highs against the dollar after the ADP report, but was last at $1.2828, up 0.1 percent on the day.
Europe’s common currency, however, looked vulnerable given a recent run of weak euro zone data that, when added to political turmoil in Italy and concerns over Cyprus, could lead European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to strike a dovish tone hours in his post-meeting comments on Thursday.
Against the yen, the dollar fell 0.2 percent to 93.24 The U.S. currency remained well off a 3-1/2 year high of 96.71 yen set last month. –0–
