JABAR EKSPRES – The US dollar weakened against a basket of major peers in late trading Thursday (Friday morning GMT), as it failed to beat resistance despite solid labor market and services sector data boosting the chances the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this month.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major rivals, fell 0.20 percent to 103.1636 in late trade.
Data published by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed private sector jobs in the United States rose by 497,000 in June, much higher than the consensus estimate of 235,000 and 267,000 in the previous month.
The US services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) increased to 53.9 in June, up from 50.3 in May, and the employment index rose to 53.1 from 49.2, indicating an increase in services sector payrolls, according to data released by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on Thursday (7/6/2023).
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However, the number of job openings in May stood at 9.8 million, which was below market expectations of 9.93 million, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) released on Thursday (7/06/2023).
Meanwhile, Americans voluntarily left 4 million jobs in May, the Labor Department said Thursday. That marks a decline of about 500,000 from 4.5 million in November 2021, the highest level in Labor Department records since 2000. Economists said the slowdown in voluntary departures could indicate a softening labor market if it reflects employers’ easing demand for workers.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty right now in terms of how strong the economy is and what the Fed might have to do to try to address inflationary pressures,” said James Ragan, director of wealth management research at D.A. Davidson.
The dollar weakened after a brief rebound in the morning.
The US dollar index continued its attempts to settle above resistance at 103.25 to 103.45 as traders reacted to economic reports from the United States, said Vladimir Zernov, analyst at market information supplier FX Empire.
