Forex – Dollar Subdued as Loonie Leaps

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Investing.com – The U.S. dollar was subdued against its rivals Friday as the downbeat jobs report did little to dent expectations the Federal Reserve may rein in rate hikes.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell by 0.15% to 96.62.

Nonfarm payrolls grew by 155,000 for the November, down from 237,000 in October. That missed economists’ forecast of 200,000.

The jobless rate was unchanged at 3.7%, while average hourly earnings grew 0.2%, lower than expectations for 0.3% increase.

Analysts, however, continued to tout a healthy backdrop for the labor market, blaming the weaker jobs report on the recent Hurricanes, which hurt labor demand in the housing sector.

“Overall, we see little evidence that labor demand is weakening,” Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a note to clients. “We think (labor) activity has been hit by the hurricanes and will rebound in the next couple of months.”

Still, the greenback struggled to advance as expectations the Fed may pause on rate hikes continued to weigh. The Wall Street Journal reported Fed officials are considering whether to signal a wait-and-see attitude after a likely rate increase at their meeting in December.

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