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 The U.S. dollar, meanwhile, traded at a one-week high against a
basket of its major trading partners' currencies, pulling it off a
20-month low reached on Thursday. <.DXY>
Following the ECB's policy meeting on Thursday, Draghi warned that
the euro's strength was "a serious concern" and that the ECB was
"comfortable" with taking more action to support economic growth and
raise inflation at its June meeting.
"The euro continued to fall overnight from Draghi's comments, but
that move is starting to run out of legs," said John Doyle, currency
strategist at Tempus Inc in Washington,
D.C.
"He has a number of times attempted to talk down the euro, and yet
they haven't done much. The testing of $1.40 on the euro was right,
but until the ECB actually acts, I don't see a sustained rally in
the dollar. The market has been calling Draghi's bluff," Doyle said.
The euro lost 0.67 percent to trade at $1.3747, more than 2 cents
below highs reached on Thursday and its weakest level in a month.
For the week, the euro is off 0.89 percent.
"For me it is not a game changer. As long as quantitative easing
continues in the U.S., we expect the dollar to remain under
pressure," said Lutz Karpowitz, a currency strategist with
Commerzbank in Frankfurt. "I would expect the euro to trade higher
against the dollar next week."
JOBS DATA CLOBBERS CANADIAN DOLLAR
Weaker-than-expected April employment data in Canada sent a wave of
selling through the loonie. A loss of 28,900 jobs defied forecasts
for a gain of 12,000, suggesting the labor market has stalled.
[to top of second column] |
After hitting a four-month high on Thursday, the loonie has dropped
0.62 percent to C$1.0900, or 91.74 U.S. cents.
In other trading, the U.S. dollar made a steady advance. Against the
yen, it edged up 0.12 percent, to 101.77 yen but was still not far
from Wednesday's three-week low. The greenback hit a one-month high
versus the Swiss franc, rising 0.82 percent to 0.8873 franc.
Sterling shed gains, falling 0.54 percent against the greenback to
$1.6841. Earlier in the week it nearly touched $1.70, a level not
seen since August 2009.
Trading ranges narrowed in the last hours of the week ahead of the
May 11 separatist referendum in Ukraine.
Pro-Russian separatists voted unanimously on Thursday in favor of
holding a referendum on independence, ignoring calls by Russian
President Vladimir Putin to postpone the vote to open the way for
talks with Kiev authorities.
(Additional reporting by Leah Shnurr in Toronto and Patrick Graham
in London; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)
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