Investing.com - The U.S. dollar slipped lower Friday, handing back some of the previous session’s gains ahead of the release of the much-watched monthly jobs report.
At 05:15 ET (09:15 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, dropped 0.4% to 99.682, having seen some buying on Thursday in thin volumes with many countries on holiday.
Dollar slips ahead of payrolls
The greenback has gathered some momentum recently, helped by optimism that China and the U.S. will soon hold trade talks aimed at softening the blow of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
However, traders are acting with a degree of caution Friday ahead of the release of the key U.S. nonfarm payrolls data for April, due later in the day.
The print is expected to be the most recent reflection of heightened economic uncertainty in the U.S., and is expected to show a decline in payrolls last month.
Gross domestic product data released earlier this week showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter.
“The question today is whether US jobs data can trigger a reversal in the dollar momentum,” said analysts at ING, in a note. “We think not, that’s because an activity and jobs market decline is already embedded in the value of the USD, so a relapse of intense dollar shorting probably requires evidence of an abrupt rise in joblessness, not simply a gradual employment slowdown.”
