LONDON—The dollar slipped in places Friday, as investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of the release of U.S. nonfarm payrolls.
The euro had rebounded to $1.3595 by 1030 GMT from $1.3576 late Thursday in New York, according to EBS. The single currency was also up at ¥121.39 from ¥120.98. The dollar was also down at 1.0767 Swiss francs from 1.0777 francs while the pound rose a little to $1.5038 from $1.5028.
The consensus forecast is for payrolls to have fallen by as much as 75,000 in February because of the bad winter weather. This is considerably more than the 20,000 decline in January and will probably create more uncertainty over the U.S. economic recovery.
But as payrolls could also be distorted by hiring for the latest U.S. census, and as the market may choose to look ahead to the next set of employment numbers instead, reaction to the figures could be unpredictable. The euro got some relief as traders looked to square positions ahead of the release.
If anything, the euro should have come under pressure after Moody's Investors Service Inc. downgraded Deutsche Bank AG's credit rating, raising fears about the risks that euro-zone sovereign debtors pose to northern European banks, and after Eurogroup leader Jean-Claude Juncker warned that German tax-payers won't come to the rescue of Greece.
Mr. Juncker's comments came as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou prepares to visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin later Friday and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris Sunday before heading to the U.S. next week to meet President Barack Obama and officials from the International Monetary Fund.
Mr. Papandreou will be drumming up support for a rescue package for the country now that he has submitted an austerity program to reduce the budget deficit. He and the German Chancellor are scheduled to hold a press conference at about 1730 GMT.
German economics minister Rainer Bruederle said the Greek prime minister shouldn't expect anything from his talks with Ms. Merkel.
"Greek Prime Minister [George] Papandreou has not said that he wants one cent, and we don't want to give him one cent, either," Mr. Bruederle said.
Elsewhere, the yen came under a little selling pressure after reports in the Japanese press that the Bank of Japan may yet ease monetary policy further. The dollar rose to ¥89.29 from ¥89.09.
