LONDON, 12 September 2003 — The dollar firmed against the euro yesterday despite the release of soft, weekly US unemployment data. The single European currency fell to 1.1189 dollars from 1.1210 late on Wednesday in New York. The dollar stood at 117.08 yen against 117.07 on Wednesday.
Bear Stearns currency strategist Steve Barrow said: “Today’s unemployment claims data from the US might have been disappointing but the dollar has firmed and this shows that there’s still some life in the dollar yet.”
The number of people lodging new claims for US jobless benefits rose to a two-month high last week, reflecting prolonged labor market pain, US government figures showed yesterday. The queue of first-time claimants in the week ending Sept. 6 rose 3,000 to 422,000, following a 22,000-strong leap the previous week, the seasonally adjusted Labor Department data showed.
However, Divyang Shah, global strategist at IDEAglobal, said a poor job market in the United States had already been priced in, after a report last Friday that the US lost a whopping 93,000 jobs in August.
The euro’s drop yesterday came amid a lack of fresh news for the market, with US equities trading only slightly in positive territory in morning trading in New York. Shah said the euro could be stuck in a range of 1.11-1.13 euros to the dollar for some time, until the market “becomes more comfortable with the jobs picture” in the US.
Stocks in the United States climbed in choppy late morning trading yesterday, bouncing back from a steep sell-off in the prior session with help from expectation-topping results from software maker Adobe Systems Inc.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 47.65 points, or 0.51 percent, to 9,468.11, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 6.07 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,016.99.
The technology-laced NASDAQ Composite Index, which dipped briefly into negative territory, climbed 8.4 points, or 0.46 percent, to 1,832.21.
Japanese share prices dropped yesterday as losses on Wall Street prompted continued profit-taking across the board, led by declines among exporters and technology companies.
Seoul and Taipei were closed for public holidays and the rest Asia’s major stock markets were mixed, with Singapore and Hong Kong gaining and Sydney losing.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Nikkei-225 index plunged 2.86 percent to end the day at 10,546.33, just off the low of 10,540.28, while the broader Topix index of all first-section stocks declined 20.05 points or 1.92 percent at 1,023.93.
Share prices in Hong Kong closed 0.68 percent higher on a technical rebound led by property and telecoms stocks. The key Hang Seng index gained 73.21 points to close at 10,883.52. Australian shares closed down 0.69 percent after a relatively quiet day following weakness on Wall Street, with falls in News Corp. and the resources sector.