Dollar drops after jobs data, yen briefly hits 10-month low
By Karen Brettell and Alun John
NEW YORK (Reuters) — The U.S. dollar fell on Tuesday, reversing earlier gains, after data showed that U.S. job openings fell in July, before this week's highly anticipated jobs report for August.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand dropped 338,000 to 8.827 million on the last day of July, the lowest level since March 2021.
The data is «a very soft look at labor demand as outright job openings continue to slide in response to the increasingly evident lagged impact of higher policy rates,» Ben Jeffery, an interest rate strategist at BMO Capital Markets said in a note.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was last down 0.11% at 103.82. It is holding below the 104.44 level reached on Friday, which was the highest since June 1.
U.S. economic resilience has raised concern that the Federal Reserve could make further rate increases in an effort to bring inflation back down closer to its 2% annual target.
U.S. personal consumption expenditures on Thursday and the August jobs reports on Friday are in focus this week for further clues on the direction and strength of the U.S. economy.
Other data on Tuesday showed that U.S. consumer confidence was below economists' expectations, and U.S. home prices rose on a monthly basis in June, while annual prices were unchanged.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday that further rate increases may be needed to cool still-too-high inflation, but also promised to move with care at upcoming meetings.
Markets are pricing in an 85% chance of the Fed standing pat on interest rates next month, according to the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch Tool, but the odds of a hike by the November meeting are now at around 56% compared with 46% a week
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