Dollar Weakens vs Euro After Obama’s Address on Jobs Plan

The dollar weakened against the euro, paring its weekly gain, after President Barack Obama spoke to Congress and proposed a $447 billion plan to spur U.S. job creation.

The greenback fell to $1.3920 per euro at 9:38 a.m. in Tokyo from $1.3882 yesterday in New York.

Treasurys declined after Obama announced the infusion into the U.S. economy, reducing demand for the safest assets.

The package is heavily geared toward tax cuts, which account for more than half the dollar value of the stimulus. Longer-maturity bonds led losses before the Treasury Department sells $66 billion in three-, 10- and 30-year debt next week.

Obama’s speech “may be a little negative for Treasuries,” said Hiromasa Nakamura, a senior investor at Mizuho Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, which oversees the equivalent of $39 billion and is a unit of Japan’s second-largest bank by assets. “U.S. yields may pick up a little bit, but in the medium term, I forecast yields will decline further.”

Yields on 10-year notes rose three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 2.01 percent at 9:24 a.m. in Tokyo, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The 2.125 percent securities due in August 2021 fell 9/32, or $2.81 per $1,000 face amount, to 101 1/32. The yield slid to 1.9066 percent on Sept. 6, the lowest on record.