The greenback has continued to lose ground over the past 72 hours, and the week is not ending well for the '$-Index, on a new weekly low, with an incursion below 105 and a mid-afternoon low of 104.55.
the greenback is down 1% on the week and -0.7% against the euro, which is up to 1.0770 (more than half the ground gained today).
The yen was the currency to gain the most this Friday and over the week as a whole, gaining a further +0.5% to 152.55/$, compared with 158.3/$ last Friday, i.e. +3.5% over the week.
The Swiss franc was also robust, gaining 0.5% to 0.9055/$.

The greenback was weakened by at least 2 'stats': the ISM 'services' and the 'NFP' (employment report) which - for once - came in 30% below expectations (and not the other way round, as has been the case since the beginning of the year).

The US economy generated just 175,000 non-farm jobs in April, according to the Labor Department, a number well below market expectations, which were on average around 250.000.

The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 points to 3.9%, where economists were hoping for stability at 3.8%, while the labor force participation rate held steady at 62.7%, and average hourly earnings rose at an annual rate of 3.9%.

In addition, non-farm job creation for the previous two months was revised from 270.000 to 236,000 for February and from 303,000 to 315,000 for March, i.e. a total revision balance of -22,000 for these two months.
The latest NFP also rules out the risk of overheating pay slips, with hourly wages remaining stable over March/April.

After 15 consecutive months of growth, the ISM 'services' index measuring the evolution of the tertiary sector dipped to 49.4 last month, falling back below the 50-point threshold indicating a downturn in activity, compared with 51.4 in March: the ISM in contraction territory in April, for the first time since the end of 2022.

In addition, growth in the US private sector, as measured by the PMI, slowed less than initially estimated in April, according to the S&P Global composite PMI index, which came in at 51.3, compared with a flash estimate of 50.9, and after 52.1 for the previous month (operators will note that this is a decline of -0.8 over 1 month, which points in the direction of a slowdown).

In Europe, industrial production slowed by -0.3% in France, and the unemployment rate in Europe remained stable at 6.4% (down to 7.3% in Italy).
The Dollar's weakness is not supporting gold, which is thwarting the traditional symmetrical relationship, ending the week below $2,300 (at $2,299) after dipping to $2,281 at 3:35 pm.

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