FX Roundup: Dollar gains momentum against global crosses

The dollar gained ground against major currency crosses on Friday, as US non-farm payrolls beat market expectations, nudging the greenback higher.

According to the Labor Department, non-farm payrolls rose by 211,000 compared in November with October’s upwardly revised 298,000 gain and with analysts’ expectations for a 200,000 reading

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5%, as analysts had forecast, while the labour-force participation rate rose by one tenth of a percentage point to 62.5%.

America's private sector added 211,000 staff in November, down from the rise of 298,000 seen in October, as service providers slowed their pace of hiring from 274,000 to 163,000. Construction saw a notable increase in employment, with the number of people on its payrolls jumping by 46,000.

Meanwhile, September’s figure was also revised upward to show a gain of 145,000 compared with an initial estimate of 137,000.

At 2330 GMT on Friday, the dollar was up against the yen by another 0.41% changing hands at JPY123.11. Concurrently, the pound fell 0.21% against the dollar exchanging at $1.5112, while the euro also dipped 0.54% versus the greenback to change hands at $1.0881.

“The [non-farm payrolls] number will be seen as positive for the US markets, despite the fact that it means that we are a further step closer to the rate hike,” said James Hughes, chief market analyst at GFX.

Kit Juckes, head of forex at Societe Generale, said, “The market expected European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to produce a rabbit from his hat this week and in the end, it wasn't enough. EUR rallied over 3% this week, and all the other G10 currencies have gained relative to US and Canadian dollars and the yen. It's also worth noting that weaker equities haven't helped the yen and that the pound has traded poorly relative to the other European currencies”

Selected commodity linked currency crosses fell with OPEC deciding to leave its oil production level where it was, officially pegged at 30m barrels per day. However, independent surveys, including the latest one from Bloomberg, suggest the cartel’s production was actually in the region of 32.1m bpd last month.

The Australian dollar ended Friday trading marginally lower by 0.03% against its US counterpart exchanging at US$0.7339. The greenback also rose 0.05% against the Canadian dollar exchanging at CAD$1.3362. However, the New Zealand dollar bucked wider trends and rose 0.87% against its US counterpart to change hands at US$0.6747.