Gold 
“Dollar falls after jump in US unemployment
The dollar fell on Friday afternoon after data showed unemployment rose sharply last month in the Unites States to its highest level since 2004.
Although data showed fewer people had lost their jobs last month than expected – 49,000 against the consensus forecast of 58,000 – the unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 per cent.
‘The overall trend is clearly weakening with the unemployment rate having increased by a full percentage point over the past twelve months,’ said James Knightley at ING. ‘This is bad news for the household sector which is already having to cope with negative real wage growth, falling house prices and more expensive borrowing.’
The dollar fell almost 1 per cent against a basket of currencies and 0.5 per cent against the euro to $1.5667.
The euro was boltstered by Thursday’s news the European Central Bank might raise interest rates.
Central bank governor Jean-Claude Trichet surprised the market by saying inflationary pressures could push the bank to raise interest rates as soon as next month, sparking a sharp strengthening in the single currency. On Friday the euro reached a 5-month high against the yen of Y165.94 and rose 0.1 per cent to £0.7990 against sterling”
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