U.S. Dollar Slides Amid U.S. Fed Rate Cut Prospects

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar weakened against other major currencies in the Asian session on Monday amid prospects of the U.S. Fed cutting interest rates earlier after a report showed employment in the U.S. increased by slightly less than expected in the month of February. However, concerns remain that the U.S. trade war may hurt global growth and worsen inflation.

The weakness in the value of the U.S. dollar comes after the Labor Department released a report showing employment in the U.S. increased by slightly less than expected in the month of February.

The closely watched report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 151,000 jobs in February after rising by a downwardly revised 125,000 jobs in January.

Economists had expected employment to grow by 160,000 jobs compared to the addition of 143,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The report also said the unemployment crept up to 4.1 percent in February from 4.1 percent in January, while economists had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell laid out a list of potential reasons why new import levies could result in more sustained price pressures on Friday, saying it is unclear if the Trump administration's tariff plans will turn out to be inflationary.

In the Asian trading today, the U.S. dollar fell to more than a 3-month low of 0.8765 against the Swiss franc and more than a 4-month low of 1.2946 against the pound, from Friday's closing quotes of 0.8795 and 1.2920, respectively. If the greenback extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 0.85 against the franc and 1.31 against the pound.

Against the euro and the yen, the greenback edged down to 1.0871 and 147.09 from last week's closing quotes of 1.0832 and 148.03, respectively. The greenback may test support near 1.10 against the euro and 141.00 against the yen.

Looking ahead, German trade data and industrial production for January are slated for release in the pre-European session at 2:00 am ET.

In the New York session, U.S. consumer inflation expectations for February is set to be published.