NEW YORK, Dec 6: The dollar rose against the euro and yen on Friday despite surging US job losses with the market favouring the greenback as a safe-haven currency amid a worsening global economic crisis.The euro fell to $1.2717 around 2200 GMT from $1.2776 late Thursday in New York.

The greenback rose to 92.77 yen from 92.20 yen a day earlier. The euro was also higher to 118.05 yen from 117.81 yen Thursday.

The US Labour Department said the US economy lost 533,000 jobs last month, the highest monthly job loss in 34 years and much higher than the 325,000 forecast, taking the unemployment rate to a 15-year high of 6.7 per cent.

The bleak job data sent shivers across European stock markets but the US share market closed higher amid speculation the government will step up measures to curb the recession in the world’s biggest economy.

Falling equity and commodity prices are adding to risk aversion, thereby benefiting the US dollar and Japanese yen, said Michael Woolfolk of the Bank of New York Mellon.

Deteriorating economic fundamentals in the US and overseas are adding to risk aversion, thereby benefiting the dollar and yen.

And, aggressive monetary easing by central banks overseas is benefit (to) the dollar and yen from a rate differential view, Woolfolk said.

With the central Bank of Japan expected to prevent the yen from breaching the 90 level against the dollar, the greenback is expected to take the most-favoured status among the major currencies as the global recession gathers strength, he explained.

The European Central Bank lowered interest rates by 0.75 percentage point to 2.5 per cent on Thursday, the largest amount in its 10-year history, and many economists expect it to lower the rates further as Europe’s economic slump deepens and the inflation rate falls sharply, Hilary Love of PNC bank said.

The dollar’s fall to a six-week low this week against the yen raised speculation that the Federal Reserve will cut US interest rates further next week, close to Japanese rates, she said.

The yen is viewed as a relatively safe currency and a stronger yen reflects global risk aversion, Love said. The yen has gained 21 per cent against the dollar and 39 per cent against the euro this year.

The pound edged higher to $1.4677 from $1.4672 on Thursday in New York trading.---AFP