Dollar flat with continued resilience of US economy

Dollar index contracts moved in narrow ranges today, Friday, as investors awaited a major report on US jobs and assessed the possibility of the Federal Reserve (the US central bank) raising interest rates for a longer period in light of economic growth expectations.

According to “Reuters”, the US non-farm payrolls report is scheduled to be released later on Friday, while expectations indicate that the US economy added 225,000 jobs in June.

The well-watched report follows data on Thursday that showed a jump in the number of private sector jobs last month and a moderate increase in the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating that the labor market is still strong.

This sent US Treasury yields higher as bets increased that the central bank should continue to raise interest rates to curb inflation, which kept the dollar higher in early Asian trading on Friday.

Against the US currency, the euro fell 0.02 percent to $1.0890, while the New Zealand dollar rose 0.09 percent to $0.6163, making up for some of the previous session’s losses.

The pound sterling was also low against the dollar, recording $1.2734 in its latest transactions. This came despite its rise on Thursday to a two-week high of $1.2780, as markets bet that the Bank of England will raise interest rates to 6.5 percent early next year, compared to earlier expectations for a rise to 6.25 percent.

The dollar index increased 0.03 percent to 103.12

The yen recorded 144.06 per dollar in the latest transactions, and is heading for slight weekly gains, after losing for three consecutive weeks.

The Australian dollar rose 0.09 percent to $ 0.66315, but it seems that it will incur a loss for the third week in a row, under pressure from the faltering economic recovery in China.