Forex - U.S. dollar higher on payroll anticipation

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded higher against its major counterparts Friday,  as anticipation for strong U.S. non farm payroll numbers and Greek debt swap fears triggered buying in the greenback.

During U.S. morning trade, the dollar was solidly higher against the euro, with EUR/USD falling 0.61% to hit 1.3193. 

Greenback sentiment was increased as Greece revealed that 95.7% of bondholders cooperated in its debt swap deal, but only after it used an option to force participation.

Holders tendered EUR152 billion of Greek law bonds representing 85.8% in response to the offer to swap their holdings.

The International Swap and Derivative Association determination committee will meet at 1 p.m. London time to determine if a credit event has occurred in Greece.

In addition, euro zone finance ministers will meet at the same time to clarify if the swap was successful enough to warrant the EUR130 billion rescue package for the island nation.

Anticipation is running high for the non farm payroll figure released later in the session. Economists are expecting that the world’s largest economy added 210,000 jobs in February, increasing demand for the U.S. dollar.

If the forecasts are met or beat, speculation is that the Federal Reserve will be less likely to start a third round of quantitative easing to put a ceiling on borrowing costs.

Yesterday, the European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1% for the third consecutive month. 

Speaking at the bank’s post policy meeting press conference, ECB President Mario Draghi said that the bank’s recent liquidity boosting operation was an "unquestionable success”.

Draghi also said the bank had revised down the growth estimate for the euro zone to a range of between minus 0.5% and 0.3% in 2012 and warned that the economic outlook was still subject to “downside risks."

The greenback was also higher against the pound, with GBP/USD falling 0.30% to hit 1.5781. 

In addition, the greenback was higher against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY adding 0.33% to hit 81.82 and USD/CHF advancing 0.58% to hit 0.9136. 

In Canada, employment was weaker than expected due to a decline in jobs in the month of February. 

Meanwhile, the greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD advancing 0.23% to hit 0.9925, AUD/USD falling 0.15% to hit 1.0628 and NZD/USD tumbling 0.08% to hit 0.8238. 

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, climbed 0.49% to hit 79.56.