Brazil’s Real Little Changed After U.S. Jobless Rate Soars

By Adriana Brasileiro

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s real erased earlier gains and was little changed after unemployment in the U.S. rose to the highest level in 16 years and payrolls plunged amid the recession.

The real was little changed at 2.2824 per U.S. dollar at 8:51 a.m. New York time, after climbing as much as 0.9 percent earlier.

The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.2 percent in December, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Payrolls fell by 598,000, the biggest monthly decline since December 1974, after dropping by 577,000 in the previous month.

The yield on Brazil’s zero-coupon local-currency bonds due January 2010 fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 11.08 percent. The yield on Brazil’s overnight futures contract for July delivery declined four basis points to 11.58 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Adriana Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro at abrasileiro@bloomberg.net