The US dollar slipped against the safe-haven Swiss franc on Friday on nervousness ahead of next week's US presidential election, despite a solid US jobs report that supported expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike next month. Traders largely looked past the US October nonfarm payrolls report, which showed wage growth that reinforced bets of a rate hike in December, choosing to position themselves ahead of an increasingly uncertain race for the White House.
The battle between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican rival Donald Trump has tightened significantly in the past week, as several swing states that were leaning toward Clinton are now considered toss-ups, according to the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project.
The dollar was last down 0.26 percent against the Swiss franc at 0.9713 franc, near a one-month low of 0.9691 touched on Wednesday. The dollar was mostly flat against the yen at 103.01 yen, also close to a one-month low of 102.54 hit on Thursday. "Investors are in risk-reduction mode into the election," said Ian Gordon, FX strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. "They're probably shorting the dollar versus safe-haven currencies as some of the polls are getting to a point where it's too close to call."
The dollar surrendered brief gains notched against the euro after the US jobs report. The euro was last trading mostly flat against the dollar at $1.1107 after initially slipping 0.2 percent to a session low of $1.1081. The jobs report showed a year-on-year increase in average hourly earnings of 2.8 percent, the biggest gain since June 2009, from 2.7 percent in September. US employers added 161,000 jobs last month, below expectations for a gain of 175,000 jobs, according to a Reuters poll of economists. The gain was still seen as an indication of a strong pace of hiring.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.