Dollar Choppy After Unemployment Tops 10 Percent

NEW YORK (AP) — The safe-haven dollar got an immediate boost Friday after the government said the U.S. unemployment rate rose above 10 percent, but then gave back its gains in choppy trading as investors figured that a weak economy meant the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates at their current near-zero range for a long time.

Higher interest rates can support a currency as investors transfer funds in search of better returns. On Thursday, the ECB and BoE maintained their rates at 1 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, higher than the U.S. federal funds rate.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will keep the key interest rate at a record low level of nearly zero for an "extended period" to support the economy amid rising unemployment and hard-to-get loans.

On Friday, the U.S. government said the jobless rate rose to 10.2 percent last month from 9.8 percent in September. That's the highest level of unemployment since April 1983.

The 16-nation euro had weakened to $1.4811 in the 20 minutes after the government's announcement, but then moved higher. In late trading, the euro dipped to $1.4835 from $1.4868 late Thursday, while the British pound rose to $1.6602 from $1.6586. The dollar slipped to 89.93 Japanese yen from 90.78 yen.