Dollar up as investors awaited US jobs data

The dollar rose slightly today, Friday, to maintain some momentum, after it jumped in the previous session following a series of decisions from central banks in Europe.

According to “Reuters”, trading was relatively weak, with markets awaiting the release of the latest US data on jobs later on Friday, which may change the policy of the Federal Reserve (US Central Bank).

The dollar rose against the euro, with the single currency down 0.1 percent to $1.09 in early European trading. But the euro remained well above its 20-year low of $0.953, which it hit in September.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points to a range between 4.5 and 4.75 percent.

The slowdown in the pace of raising interest rates and statements from the central bank helped the dollar decline, as investors had hopes that the monetary tightening cycle would end soon.

But it rose sharply on Thursday when the European Central Bank raised interest rates by 50 basis points to 2.5 percent. However, he hinted at the possibility of an end to monetary tightening after another increase in March, which caused the euro to decline.

Alvin Tan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said that the relatively weak earnings reports from technology giants, Amazon, Apple and Alphabet, prompted investors to avoid risk in the markets, which could support the dollar on Friday.