* Dollar rises vs euro after jobs data
* U.S. job loses at 524,000; unemployment rate at 7.2.pct
* Euro pressured by mixed euro zone economic
data
(Recasts, adds comments, U.S. data, updates prices, changes
byline, dateline; previous LONDON)
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The dollar rallied across the
board on Friday in volatile trading, with investors relieved by
data showing U.S. job losses in December were not as dismal as
many had feared.
Traders had positioned themselves for a gruesome non-farm
payrolls number following a U.S. private sector jobs report
earlier this week which showed hefty losses of 693,000.
However, many of those short trades were squeezed when the
government reported a headline figure of 524,000, slightly
better than the market's revised 550,000 forecast.
"The dollar has dodged an economic bullet," said Nick
Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy, at Wells Fargo in New
York.
"Even though the report was generally discouraging, the
headline payrolls decline was broadly as forecast. And perhaps
most significantly for the dollar, we don't think today's
report will accelerate further monetary easing from the Federal
Reserve."
The euro hit session lows versus the dollar at $1.3588. It
was last at $1.3615 <EUR=>, down 0.8 percent on the day.
The single euro zone currency had hit session highs
immediately after the data's release.
Against the yen, the dollar was flat at 91.04 <JPY=>, off
session lows at 90.55.
The ICE Futures' dollar index <.DXY>, a gauge of the
greenback's value versus six major currencies, rose 1 percent
to 82.371.
Despite the dollar's rebound, analysts said there is plenty
in the jobs report that bodes ill for the U.S. economy and its
currency.
The 7.2 percent unemployment rate was the highest in nearly
16 years and the upward revisions in November and October have
pushed total job losses in the last four months to 1.9
million.
Total job reductions for 2008 were 2.6 million, the largest
decline in 63 years.
"There was nothing good in the report," said Kathy Lien,
director of currency research at GFT Forex in New York. "The
U.S. is in recession and in previous recessions, job cuts have
lasted for at least 15 months."
So far Lien said the U.S. economy has only seen 12
consecutive months of job losses which suggests that non-farm
payrolls will not turn positive until the second half of the
year.
Earlier, data showed showed a bigger-than-expected drop in
French industrial output, adding to the argument that the
euro zone economy is further deteriorating, and keeping selling
pressure on the euro. For more details see [].
The euro ultimately received little support from an
unexpected rise in euro zone retail sales, as the outlook for
consumer demand remains weak amid plunging business morale and
growing unemployment. For more see [].
(Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)
