US jobless claims dropped for a second straight week, falling to 881 thousand. This was down from 1.006 million and below the forecast of 955 thousand.
Wall Street posted sharp declines on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq sliding more than 5% as investors dumped high-flying technology-focused stocks.
“If we don’t get dovishness, I expect you might actually get rates rising and pop up higher in the U.S. dollar,” Westpac FX analyst Imre Speizer told Reuters.
The dollar was down on Monday morning, but capped its losses after a meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials, originally scheduled for Saturday, was delayed.