NEW YORK: The US dollar dropped broadly on Friday in thin holiday trade after disappointing US jobs market data kept the prospect of more Federal Reserve monetary policy support alive.
The dollar fell against the euro for the first time in five days after data showed US payrolls rose far less than expected in March.
Th report offset sentiment earlier in the week that followed the release of Fed minutes from its last policy meeting that had market participants downplaying expectations of adding more monetary stimulus.
"Clearly a disappointing (payrolls) number. Across the board it's kind of an underwhelming number,"said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.
The euro hit a high of $1.3112 after the report, rebounding from a three week low of $1.3033 reached n Thursday. It last traded at $1.3094, up 0.2 percent.
The dollar fell as low as 81.29 and last traded at 81.56, down 0.9 percent on the day, according to Reuters data.
"At the very least it will keep the door open to additional policy easing more so than before the number was released. In that respect it's definitely a negative for the dollar," Esiner said. "The extent of dollar losses is going to depend on how the market views this number, as an outlier or maybe evidence that the jobs growth is stalling."
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