Forex - U.S. payrolls miss estimates, greenback falls

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar slipped against its major counterparts Friday, as U.S. nonfarm payrolls missed estimates increasing fears of a global slowdown.

During U.S. morning trade, the dollar was slightly lower against the euro, with EUR/USD dropping 0.01% to hit 1.3153.

Pushing the greenback lower, U.S. nonfarm payrolls advanced less-than-expected last month, official data showed on Friday.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported non-farm payrolls climbed to a seasonally adjusted 115K, from 154K in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from 120K.

Economists had expected U.S. non-farm payrolls to rise 170K last month.
Adding to the uncertainty, France and Greece will hold elections over the weekend.

French voters will decide on the final round of the countries presidential race and Greece will be voting on a new parliament.

Francois Hollande, the Socialist challenger for the French highest office, is the leading incumbent. He is calling for a re-negotiation of the budget pact with European leaders, saying it needs to place more of an emphasis on growth. He has rejected Sarkozy’s plan to increase sales taxes to fund lower payroll charges.

Meanwhile in Greece, neither of the two major political parties, New Democracy and Socialist Pasok is likely to win the majority.
The greenback was lower against the pound, with GBP/USD gaining 0.10% to hit 1.6176..

On Thursday, in the U.K., a report showed that service sector activity expanded at a slower rate than expected in April, falling to the lowest level since November, but the report indicated that the overall outlook remained positive.

The services purchasing managers index fell to 53.3 in April, from 55.3 the previous month, worse than expectations for a decline to 54.6.

Elsewhere, the greenback was lower against the yen and against the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY falling 0.32% to hit 79.93 and USD/CHF easing down 0.15% to hit 0.9122.

The greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD adding 0.32% to hit 0.9916, AUD/USD plunging 0.60% to hit 1.0203 and NZD/USD plummeting 0.53% to hit 0.7956.

The New Zealand dollar weakened broadly, earlier in the week,  after official data showed that the country’s unemployment rate rose unexpectedly in the first quarter, climbing to 6.7%, against expectations for a decline to 6.3%.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.10%, at 79.20.