CURRENCIES: Dollar Rebounds After 'taper Tantrum' With U.S. Jobs In View

Pound slides after poor U.K. data

The dollar moved cautiously higher in Friday's trade, with investors gearing up for the closely watched U.S. jobs report that could weaken or strengthen the case for the Federal Reserve to take more action later this year.

The ICE Dollar Index traded 0.2% higher at 95.964, as the greenback rose against most other major currencies.

The advance came after a downbeat day for the dollar on Thursday, when a "taper tantrum" in Europe pushed bond yields and the euro sharply higher after hawkish minutes from the European Central Bank.

On Friday, the worries about the end of ultraloose monetary policy were still on traders' minds, but attention also shifted to the top-tier U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. The report comes out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

"The recent tightening by the Fed, and their less-hawkish tone of late, ensures that market sentiment will change dramatically if this release is wildly outside of the market consensus of 179K," said analysts at FxPro, in a note.

"Following May's weak and disappointing release of 138K, the Fed will be looking to see if this release further indicates a weakening economy, which will further impact the Fed's economic 'strategy' for the remainder of this year," they added.

The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.3%.

Read:U.S. forecast to add 180,000 jobs in June, but don't be surprised if hiring falls short (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-forecast-to-add-180000-jobs-in-june-but-dont-be-surprised-if-hiring-falls-short-2017-07-06)

In other currencies, the euro pulled back slightly, fetching $1.1412, compared with $1.1424 late Thursday in New York.

The pound slid to $1.2901 from $1.2970 on Thursday, after disappointing U.K. manufacturing data.

Dollar-yen gained, with the dollar buying Yen113.70, up from Yen113.22 on Thursday.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 07, 2017 06:47 ET (10:47 GMT)