Dollar Down, Near One-Month Low Ahead of U.S. Jobs Report By Investing.com

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – The dollar was down on Friday morning in Asia, tumbling to its lowest level in almost a month as the week draws to a close. Investors now await the latest U.S. jobs report that could prod the Federal Reserve to begin asset tapering earlier than expected.

The that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies inched down 0.04% to 92.188 by 10:32 PM ET (2:32 AM GMT). It hit the 92.189-mark earlier for the first time since Aug. 5.

The pair inched down 0.03% to 109.89.

The pair inched up 0.05% to 0.7402, with Australia releasing earlier in the day. The pair edged up 0.13% to 0.7114.

The pair inched up 0.05% to 6.4593. China’s for August was 46.7, .

The pair inched up 0.08% to 1.3841.

The U.S. jobs report, including , is due later in the day. However, the non-farm payrolls estimate ranges from as little as 375,000 to over a million.

A Commonwealth Bank of Australia (OTC:) note forecasts the U.S. added 800,000 jobs in August, which is enough to spur the Fed to begin asset tapering although the bar for an announcement at the central bank’s next meeting has been raised by the current COVID-19 outbreak.

“The risk is uncertainty associated with COVID-19 stands in the way of an imminent asset tapering announcement,” which would reverse any dollar gains from a strong payrolls report, the note added.

The Fed has made labor market recovery a condition to begin asset tapering, with expectations that it would begin imminently giving the U.S. currency a boost for much of August. Although the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. also climbed, this further boosted the safe-haven dollar.

However, investors sounded a retreat from the dollar’s nine-and-a-half-month high hit on Aug. 20 as the Fed hinted that it could delay tightening monetary policy due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated that asset tapering could still possibly begin within 2021 at the Jackson Hole symposium that took place during the previous week. He also said that there was no rush to subsequently hike interest rates, which sent the greenback down further.