REUTERS, London

The US dollar found some support on Monday after Friday’s dismal US jobs report and President Donald Trump’s firing of a top statistics official battered the currency and prompted investors to ramp up bets of imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts.

Data on Friday showed US employment growth undershot expectations in July while the nonfarm payrolls count for the prior two months was revised down by a massive 258,000 jobs, suggesting a sharp deterioration in labour market conditions.

“The report itself was perhaps not that weak but the revisions were extremely significant,” said Mohamad Al-Saraf, FX strategist at Danske Bank.

“We have a hard time seeing how the Fed cannot lower rates at the September meeting.”

Adding to headwinds for markets, Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner Erika McEntarfer the same day, accusing her of faking the jobs numbers.

An unexpected resignation by Fed Governor Adriana Kugler also opened the door for Trump to make an imprint on the central bank much earlier than anticipated. Trump has been at loggerheads with the Fed for not lowering interest rates sooner.

The barrage of developments dealt a one-two punch to the dollar, which sank more than 2 percent against the yen and roughly 1.5 percent against the euro on Friday.