09/01/2004

Euro soars on weak US jobs creation report

The US dollar has continued its decline against the euro, as the currency market reacted to a worse than expected December US employment report.

The US jobs growth figures announced today saw the euro leap back to levels close to the near the record Tuesday high of $1.28.

The figures released today revealed that the US labour market had created just 1,000 jobs, where more than 150,000 were forecast.

However, there was better news on the US jobless figures that showed a 0.2% fall to 5.7%. This represented a substantial drop in the numbers of US jobless, but the overall take on the figures was one of questionable jobs creation in an apparently robustly growing the US economy.

Yesterday, the US dollar's position on international exchanges was quenched by an upbeat comment by European central Bank President.

Jean-Claude Trichet claimed that the strong euro would be supported by the generally improving global economy, which was interpreted as bad news for the US dollar.

On the stocks market amid heavy trading this week tech shares received a further boost yesterday as Nokia posted a surprise positive forecast at the start a new year of trade.

The Nokia news served to lift the telecoms and technology share market for the fifth consecutive trading day as New Year optimism reached a new high on the US market. The NASDAQ opened on Friday morning at a quarter point over 2,100 - the highest it has reached in just over three and a half years.

(SP)

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