The dollar fell against the euro Friday, weighed down by a number of U.S. jobless claims that disappointed investors for the second month in a row, a sign that the economic recovery is not yet established.
By market close on Friday, the dollar was down 0.33% to $1.21664 per EUR.
The number of jobs created in the U.S. doubled in May compared to April, to 559,000 jobs, but remained well below the 720,000 jobs expected by the market.
After starting the session in the green, the dollar floundered as soon as the data was released.
“The report proves that the economy is still far from having made real progress,” commented Edward Moya, an analyst at Oanda.
For traders, the message is indeed clear: the U.S. economy is far from overheating, and the U.S. Central Bank (Fed) will probably wait before normalizing its monetary policy, even if it means having to tolerate rising inflation.
Earlier in the session, the dollar had climbed to its highest level since mid-May, to 1.2104 dollars.
From a technical perspective, the EURUSD has bounced the downward trending oblique but fell short of crossing over the 20-day moving average, suggesting potential weaknesses remain. For now, the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement level at 1.2099 should serve as the immediate support level.
Should the EURUSD manage to claw back above the short-term moving average, consolidation towards 1.2240 is a strong scenario. Traders may look to play off the 1.21 and 1.22 channels at the start of the week.
Meanwhile, in the crypto sphere, Tesla boss Elon Musk put another dent in bitcoin, which was losing 4.01% to $37,154. In a tweet illustrated with a photo montage of a love breakup, he simply wrote “Bitcoin” followed by a broken heart.
Tesla had previously announced it was reversing its decision to accept bitcoin as a means of payment for its electric vehicles, but cryptocurrency enthusiasts were wondering on Friday whether the group had also decided to part with the bitcoins it had purchased earlier this year.
In this highly volatile market, Elon Musk's tweets, sometimes praising and sometimes criticizing cryptocurrencies, regularly send prices tumbling.
In other news, the disappointing Non-Farm Payroll report also contributed to the strong recovery in the golds value. The precious metal was boosted the reduced expectations of a rate hike in the near future, trading higher 1.02% at 1889.90 on market close Friday.
Disclaimer: This material has been created for information purposes only. All views expressed in this document are my own and do not necessarily represent the opinions of any entity.