The US dollar tumbled 45 pips against the yen in a knee jerk reaction to the weak nonfarm payrolls (NFP) numbers today, which were below forecast. The dollar also fell against the euro and sterling as well as other major peers, while gold jumped higher.
The US Labor Department report showed that the number of new jobs added to the US economy in September was 148,000 versus the 180,000 expected. The modest hiring last month raises expectations that the Federal Reserve will not scale back stimulus before the end of this year and will likely delay tapering until March 2014.
Meanwhile, some expect the next jobs report in October to disappoint markets because it will include the period of the US government shutdown, which will likely have an impact on jobs.
The USD/JPY fell from a pre-NFP data level of 98.31 to 97.86 within a few minutes after the data before bouncing slightly.
The euro shot up against the weaker dollar, with the EUR/USD jumping to a high of $1.3745 from $1.3672, currently up 0.3 percent on the day. Sterling rose from $ 1.6128 to $1.6210.
Gold gained $15 to $1,328.