Dollar mixed against major currencies

The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies on Friday, rising versus the yen on Bank of Japan 's aggressive easing measures but weak against the euro following disappointing U.S. job data. Non-farm payroll employment edged up 88,000 in March, and unemployment rate in March slightly improved to 7.6 percent from 7. 7 percent in February, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday. The growth in the payroll data was less than economists' estimates and the mild drop in unemployment rate was mainly due to lower labor force participation rate, according to the Labor Department. The European Central Bank and Bank of England held their benchmark interest rates and quantitative easing program unchanged, which also led the euro and the pound to advance against the dollar. Meanwhile, the dollar continued its sharp upward trend against the yen on Friday. The Bank of Japan promises to continue monetary easing until it achieves the 2 percent inflation goal, according to a statement released Thursday after the central bank's two-day monetary policy meeting. The central bank also said it would conduct money-market operations so that the monetary base will increase at an annual pace of about 645 billion dollars to 755 billion dollars. On the economic front, U.S. international trade deficit in goods and services decreased to 43.0 billion dollars in February from the revised 44.5 billion dollars in January, as exports increased more than imports, the Commerce Department said Friday. In late New York trading, the euro jumped to 1.3012 dollars from 1.2937 dollars of the previous session and the British pound rose to 1.5338 dollars from 1.5237 dollars. The Australian dollar declined to 1.0385 dollars from 1.0429 dollars. The dollar bought 97.68 Japanese yen, higher than 96.13 in the previous session. It edged down to 0.9330 Swiss francs from 0.9396 Swiss francs and went up to 1.0175 Canadian dollars from 1.0119 of the previous trading day.