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Strength Of U.S. Dollar Falls Following Miserable Jobs Report

Hiring falters in December as payrolls rise only 199,000

The price of the U.S. dollar fell on Friday after disappointing jobs report from the Department of Labor.

The report released Friday morning showed that the U.S. economy added 199,000 jobs in December, less than half of what economists had predicted. The Department of Labor also collected the data before the Omicron variant caused a record high surge in COVID-19 cases, suggesting that the numbers will be even worse after the damage from the new wave.

Following the jobs report, the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar dipped.

The dollar index fell 0.269% at 96.001. Even with Friday’s weakness, the dollar was still on track for a weekly gain, its first in three weeks.

“The euro was up 0.3% to $1.1325 as it strengthened against the greenback in the wake of the payrolls report, after showing little reaction to data showing eurozone inflation rose to 5% in December,” Reuters reported. “Eurozone policymakers have said they expect inflation to gradually slow down in 2022 and a rate hike will likely not be needed this year.”

“The Japanese yen strengthened 0.12% versus the greenback at 115.71 per dollar. The yen has taken the brunt of the damage while the greenback has strengthened recently, with the dollar hitting a five-year high versus the yen earlier this week,” Reuters added. “Sterling was poised for its third straight weekly gain and was last trading at $1.356, up 0.24% on the day, even after data showed growth in Britain’s construction sector cooled in December as the Omicron variant of coronavirus spread.”