960408

Dollar firmer

NEW YORK: The dollar was somewhat revived at midday, reclaiming a bit of ground lost in Asia in anticipation of a sharp opening selloff of U.S. stocks.

The greenback managed to eke out small gains versus marks and yen after the Dow Jones Industrial Stock Average, as expected, fell more than 100 points early Monday, mirroring a nearly two-point U.S. Treasury bond rout Friday.

At midday, the dollar stood at 1.4770/75 marks, up from 1.4745/55 at the open and at 107.35/45 yen, up from 107.22/29.

The U.S. equity markets were closed Friday for the religious holiday but some bond and currency dealers manned their desks for the release of March U.S. employment data.

The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond fell 1-27/32 Friday following a larger-than-expected 140,000 jump in non-farm payrolls and the expected rise in the unemployment rate to 5.6 percent, from 5.5 percent in February.

February's market-rattling 705,000 jobs surge was revised down to a still-massive 624,000.

Economists polled by Reuters expected March payrolls to rise by only 60,000, while many traders and analysts thought a larger downward revision might show February's data to be a weather-related fluke.

The dollar may get help near-team from a yen shaken by recent military incursions into the demilitarized zone in Korea by bands of armed North Korean military personel.-Reuter