By Peter Nurse
Investing.com – The U.S. dollar weakened in early European trade Monday, as traders reassessed the path of U.S. rate hikes in the wake of last week’s jobs report while risk appetite benefited from China reopening its borders.
At 03:05 ET (08:05 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, fell 0.4% to 103.267, continuing Friday’s over 1% drop.
Traders are now factoring in the U.S. central bank toning down its aggressive monetary tightening policy, with a 25 basis point hike now widely expected in February, down from an increase of 50 basis points in December.
This followed the release of the monthly official U.S. jobs report on Friday, which showed nonfarm payrolls rising by a relatively benign 223,000 jobs in December, while average hourly earnings climbed 0.3%, smaller than expected and less than the previous month’s 0.4%.
Additionally, U.S….
