2019.03.0816:31:00UTC+00Dollar Mostly Weak Against Rivals After Disappointing Jobs Data

The U.S. dollar shed ground against most major currencies on Friday after data from the Labor Department showed job growth in the U.S. nearly ground to a halt in February after soaring in January.

The Dollar index dropped to 97.25, before recovering to 97.37, still down by about 0.3%.

Against the Euro, the dollar was down by about 0.35% at 1.1232. The euro had plunged sharply in the previous session after the ECB said interest rates were likely to stay the same until the end of the year. The ECB also lowered its foreast for eurozone growth for 2019 and 2020.

The dollar gained against the British currency, with the Pound buying $1.3016, after closing at $1.3007 on Thursday.

Encouraging Canadian jobs data lifted the country's currency Loonie against the greenback. The loonie strengthened to 1.3467 before paring gains and dropping to around 1.3415.

The Japanese yen strengthened to 110.82 a dollar before losing its way as the session progressed. The yen was last seen hovering around 111.10, down nearly 0.4% from previous close.

The USD/CNY pair traded in a tight range, with the dollar slightly up in positive territory.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment edged up by 20,000 jobs in February after jumping by an upwardly revised 311,000 jobs in January.

Economists had expected employment to increase by about 180,000 jobs compared to the spike of 304,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The much weaker than expected job growth in February represented the worst month since the loss of 18,000 jobs in September of 2017, when employment was impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Despite the much weaker than expected job growth, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8% in February from 4% in January. Economists had expected unemployment rate to to dip to 3.9%.