Dollar retreats on jump in US jobless claims; eyes on Fed
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SINGAPORE : The dollar retreated on Friday, dragged by lower U.S. Treasury yields after a spike in weekly jobless claims raised traders' hopes that a peak in U.S. interest rates was near, as focus turned to the upcoming week packed with central bank meetings.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits surged to the highest in more than 1-1/2 years last week, data on Thursday showed, though layoffs are probably not accelerating as the data covered the Memorial Day holiday, which could have injected some volatility.
Nonetheless, that was enough to knock the U.S. dollar to a more than two-week low against a basket of currencies in the previous session, as investors took the data as a sign that the U.S. labour market was slowing.
The dollar index last stood at 103.35 in early Asia trade on Friday, having lost more than 0.7 per cent in the previous session, its largest daily decline in weeks.
