The US dollar remained low against major currencies following the release of lower than expected employment figures for December by the Automatic Data Processing, Inc. The US dollar weakened against major currencies such as the British pound and the Japanese yen.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback’s performance against major currencies, was trading at daily lows of 101.90 slightly below the 102 resistance level.
The ADP, which tracks employment in the US private sector, reported that the private sector had added 153,000 new jobs in December 2016 as opposed to the widely expected 170,000 new jobs.
The greenback’s performance was also affected by yesterday’s release of the minutes of FOMC December meeting, which highlighted the uncertainty around the US dollar, regarding the policies that might be implemented by Donald Trump‘s administration. The performance of the US dollar was boosted by the announcement of lower weekly unemployment claims figures at 235,000 as compared to the previous figure of 263,000.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics under the Department of Labor is expected to release the official report on the employment situation for December 2016 tomorrow. The report is expected to announce that a total of 750,000 new jobs were created in December.
The USD/JPY was trading at 115.42 as at 17:57 GMT having lost significant ground as it opened the day at 117.13. The British pound gained significantly against the US dollar as the GBP/USD opened at 1.2347 and was trading at 1.2421.
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