NEW YORK: The US dollar fell on Tuesday, reversing earlier gains, after data showed that US job openings fell in July, before this week’s highly anticipated jobs report for August.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand dropped 338,000 to 8.827 million on the last day of July, the lowest level since March 2021.
The data is “a very soft look at labor demand as outright job openings continue to slide in response to the increasingly evident lagged impact of higher policy rates,” Ben Jeffery, an interest rate strategist at BMO Capital Markets said in a note.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was last down 0.11% at 103.82. It is holding below the 104.44 level reached on Friday, which was the highest since June 1.
US economic resilience has raised concern that the Federal Reserve could make further rate increases in an effort to bring inflation back down closer to its 2% annual target.
The dollar hit 147.375 yen on Tuesday, the highest since Nov. 7, and was last at 146.365, down 0.12% on the day.
Traders are watching for any signs of intervention by Japanese officials to shore up the ailing currency. Japan intervened in currency markets last September when the dollar rose past 145 yen, prompting the Ministry of Finance to buy the yen and push the pair back to around 140 yen.
“It does feel like we’re heading toward the risk of a liquidity trap in China and that risk premium is being priced into the yuan and that’s helping boost the dollar via safe haven and liquidity demand,” said Rai.
The euro was last up 0.20% at $1.0840. It fell to $1.07655 on Friday, the lowest since June 13.
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