orexpros - The euro moved higher against the U.S. dollar in early trade Friday, boosted by the planned bank recapitalization by the European Central Bank and better than expected employment numbers in the U.S.
EUR/USD hit 1.3525 in early U.S. trade, the pair’s highest since last Friday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 1.3496 sinking 1.05%.
The pair was likely to find support at 1.3368, Tuesday’s low, and resistance at 1.3798, the high of September 21.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that non-farm payrolls rose to a seasonally adjusted 103,000 in September, up from 57,000 the previous month. Market expectations were for non-farm payrolls to rise to 53,000 for the period.
Labor gains in September were due in large part to the return of 45,000 unionized workers following a strike against Verizon Communications Inc.
Separately, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged in September at a seasonally adjusted 9.1%, in line with market expectations.
In early U.S. trade the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lifted 0.28% to 11,154.70, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.46% to 2,495.32, and the S&P 500 shed 0.16% to 1,163.12.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank announced it would begin buying USD53 billion in covered bonds and institute longer term refinancing operations to commercials banks in the euro-zone beginning this month.
The ECB’s two-fold program was aimed at easing concerns in financial markets over Europe’s sovereign debt threats.
In afternoon trade, European shares posted modest gains with France’s CAC up 0.37% to 3,085.80, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.35% to 5,310.10 and Germany’s DAX climbed 0.65% to 5,681.82.
Meanwhile, the euro was lower against the British pound but up against the Japanese yen, with EUR/GBP down by 0.69% to hit 0.8640, and EUR/JPY higher by 0.55% to hit 103.64.
The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank was scheduled to release minutes from its latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting early next week.