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Thursday, Jun 14, 2012 7:45 PM UTC

Euro rises slightly vs dollar on weak US jobs data

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Topics: From the Wires,

NEW YORK (AP) — The euro rose modestly against the dollar Thursday on a weak U.S jobs report and increasing concern about Spain’s finances.

The Labor Department said that unemployment benefit applications rose 6,000 to 386,000 last week, a sign that hiring remains slow.

The yield on Spain’s benchmark 10-year bonds jumped to 6.96 percent, the highest since the country joined the euro in 1999. That’s a sign investors are worried about the country’s finances.

On Wednesday, Moody’s downgraded Spain’s government debt rating, saying that Europe’s plan to lend the country $126 billion to help its banking sector will just add to the country’s debt burden.

The euro rose to $1.2600 in afternoon trading from $1.2589 late Wednesday.

The dollar was also little changed against other currencies as traders await this weekend’s election in Greece. If anti-bailout politicians win, the country may be forced to leave the euro, which may roil financial markets.

The dollar was practically unchanged at $1.5533 from $1.5532. The dollar slipped to 79.27 Japanese yen from 79.33 yen, to 0.9531 Swiss franc from 0.9540 Swiss franc and to 1.0263 Canadian dollar from 1.0282 Canadian dollar.

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