The dollar fell against most major currencies on Wednesday amid big job losses in the US private sector in December.

US employers cut 693,000 jobs in December on a seasonally adjusted basis. The cuts were much deeper than what had been expected by economists, according to the latest national employment report from Automatic Data Processing (ADP).

Usually a weak ADP employment report would be followed by disappointing non-farm payroll data from the US Labor Department. Analysts expect that the non-farm job report, to be released Friday, would show the unemployment rate rising to 7 percent from 6.7 percent in November.

The dollar was also hurt by bad news from major companies. Alcoa, the world's third-largest aluminum maker, said it would cut13 percent of its global work force, close plants, and sell some business units. Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis said he expects the bank's final results for 2008 to be below expectations.

The euro bought US$1.3614 in late New York trading compared with US$1.3523 it bought late Tuesday. The pound rose to US$1.5123 from US$1.4939.

The dollar rose to 1.1966 Canadian dollars from 1.1796 Canadian dollars, and fell to 92.65 Japanese yen from 94.01 Japanese yen. It fell to 1.1026 Swiss francs from 1.1177 Swiss francs.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2009)