The US dollar jumped against most its major counterparts today after non-farm payrolls came out even better than optimistic forecasts and the unemployment rate declined more than was predicted by analysts.
US non-farm payrolls added 288,000 in April after rising 203,000 in March (revised from 192,000). The consensus forecast promised smaller growth by 216,000. Moreover, the unemployment rate edged down from 6.7 percent to 6.3 percent. It was the pleasant surprise for dollar bulls who have expected just a small drop to 6.6 percent.
The positive data led to speculations that the Federal Reserve will continue with reductions of monetary stimulus and may even consider raising interest rates earlier. The dollar remains one of the worst-performing currencies on the Forex market, falling 3.1 percent over the past three months.
EUR/USD dropped from 1.3868 to 1.3816 and GBP/USD tumbled from 1.6892 to 1.6829 as of 13:16 GMT today. USD/JPY climbed from 102.32 to 102.82 and reached the high of 103.01 intraday.
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