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The dollar fell on Friday after a report showed the U.S. economy shed jobs for a third straight month, confirming fears that the country may already be in a recession.

Both the euro and yen posted gains on the greenback after the government said U.S. employers cut 80,000 jobs in March, more than expected and the biggest monthly fall in five years.

The dollar had recovered most of its earlier losses by late afternoon, however, as traders said the data did not come as a big surprise to a market that has long expected the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again late this month.

“The jobs data was pretty horrible, but I think yesterday’s jump in weekly jobless claims gave people a good inkling that today’s report was not going to be good,” said Greg Salvaggio, vice president of trading at Tempus Consulting in Washington.

“Most of the negatives for the dollar and the U.S. economy are already priced in, and there’s a feeling that we may be reaching a bottom in the dollar,” he added.

In late trade, the euro was up 0.3 percent at $1.5728 . It had climbed as high as $1.5774 after the jobs data but ran into aggressive selling at that level.

The dollar was at 101.58 yen , 0.7 percent below late Thursday, and fell 0.4 percent to 1.0060 Swiss francs .

Articles taken from REUTERS