On Monday the dollar fell for a 10th straight day, the longest slump in 17 years, after slower manufacturing growth reinforced speculation the Federal Reserve will maintain record-low rates.
Dollar index advanced earlier after the U.S. said al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed.
The yen snapped two days of gains versus the euro after Obama said bin Laden was killed after a firefight at a house in Pakistan. Bin Laden was the architect of a radical Islamist movement that killed almost 3,000 people in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, and recast global security and politics.
the yen and the Swiss franc rose against all of their most-traded counterparts as investors sought the currencies’ relative safety amid declines in equities and commodities.
The dollar erased gains against the euro as stocks trimmed losses after a report showed U.S. factory orders rose more than forecast.
Canada’s dollar fluctuated after rising earlier as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won a majority of seats in Parliament for the first time.
On Wednesday the euro reached its highest level in 17 months against the dollar on speculation European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will signal further rate increases after policy makers meet on Thursday.
The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro on weaker-than-forecast economic data and speculation the Federal Reserve will maintain economic stimulus.
ADP Employer Services data showed employment at U.S. companies increased by 179,000 jobs in April, compared with a revised 207,000 in March. The median estimate called for a 198,000 advance this month.
The Canadian dollar fell for a third day against its U.S. counterpart, the longest losing streak since March, as crude oil dropped. The commodity is Canada’s biggest export.
On Thursday the dollar strengthened from almost a three-year low even as claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week and worker productivity slowed in the first quarter, encouraging the Federal Reserve to keep borrowing costs low.
Applications for jobless benefits jumped by 43,000 to 474,000 in the week ended April 30, the most since August, Labor Department figures showed today. The measure of employee output per hour increased at a 1.6 percent annual rate after a 2.9 percent gain in the prior three months, other data from the Labor Department showed.
The euro dropped the most against the dollar in two weeks and slid versus the yen after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet signaled the ECB may wait until after June to raise interest rates again.
On Friday the euro fell against all of its most-traded counterparts after Der Spiegel magazine reported that debt-strapped Greece may stop using the currency.
The European currency reached a two-week low against the dollar after the magazine said Greece is considering reintroducing its own currency and that the European Commission called a meeting to discuss the move. A spokesman for Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, who leads euro-region finance ministers, denied the report.
The government reported that the economy added 244,000 jobs in April, much better than expected.
The unemployment rate ticked higher to 9% from 8.8% but investors were clearly tuned into the top-line number. Economists were expecting the report to show that employers added only 185,000 jobs in the month and the unemployment rate to remain 8.8%.
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