FOREX-Dollar drops on persistent US-China trade rift jobs data

    * China says to fight back after new U.S. tariff threat
    * U.S. jobs disappoint, but wage growth up

 (New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
following U.S. jobs data, adds FX table; new byline, changes
dateline, previous LONDON)
    By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
    NEW YORK, April 6 (Reuters) - The dollar fell on Friday, as
investors worried after China fought back against a new U.S.
threat to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, and as the market
took in a report showing the U.S. economy in March created the
fewest jobs in six months.
    The greenback slid against the safe-haven yen and Swiss
franc in the wake of China's comments. The U.S.-China trade
dispute outweighed the U.S. payrolls report that showed fewer
job gains than expected, but a pick-up in wage growth.
    "The U.S. jobs report was somewhat overshadowed this week by
the ongoing back and forth between the world's two largest
economies which has threatened to disrupt the period of strong
growth the global economy is seeing," said Craig Erlam, senior
market analyst, at OANDA in London.
    "Despite that, traders as ever were paying very close
attention to the data release and were clearly unmoved by what
they saw, despite the non-farm payroll number being well below
expectations," he added.
    China warned it would fight back "at any cost," hours after
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on an
additional $100 billion in Chinese goods.
    The yen and Swiss franc, two currencies investors buy in
times of market stress, rallied as result, with the dollar
falling 0.4 percent to 107.02 yen and declining 0.3
percent to 0.9601 franc.
    Losses in the dollar escalated after China's Commerce
Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said the country will not hesitate
to respond if the United States adds further tariffs. He ruled
out negotiations under these conditions.
    In mid-morning trading, the dollar index was down 0.3
percent at 90.18.
    The U.S. nonfarm payrolls report showed just 103,000 jobs in
March, well below the market forecast of 193,000 and February's
surge of 326,000.
    The bright spot was a 0.3 percent rise in wage growth, which
pushed the annual wage growth rate up.
    Wage growth, like core inflation, "is still muted, but there
is clear evidence of an acceleration over the past few months in
the monthly gains," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist, at
Capital Economics in Toronto. 
    "Overall, looking through the volatility, employment growth
is trending higher and wage growth is starting to heat up," he
added.
    
    ========================================================
    Currency bid prices at 9:43AM (1343 GMT)
 Description      RIC         Last           U.S. Close  Pct Change     YTD Pct     High Bid    Low Bid
                                              Previous                   Change                 
                                              Session                                           
 Euro/Dollar      EUR=        $1.2274        $1.2238     +0.29%         +2.32%      +1.2280     +1.2216
 Dollar/Yen       JPY=        107.1500       107.3700    -0.20%         -4.90%      +107.4500   +107.0000
 Euro/Yen         EURJPY=     131.52         131.42      +0.08%         -2.71%      +131.5600   +131.1000
 Dollar/Swiss     CHF=        0.9595         0.9632      -0.38%         -1.52%      +0.9649     +0.9593
 Sterling/Dollar  GBP=        1.4069         1.4001      +0.49%         +4.12%      +1.4071     +1.3984
 Dollar/Canadian  CAD=        1.2738         1.2747      -0.07%         +1.28%      +1.2795     +1.2736
 Australian/Doll  AUD=        0.7697         0.7684      +0.17%         -1.33%      +0.7699     +0.7658
 ar                                                                                             
 Euro/Swiss       EURCHF=     1.1779         1.1791      -0.10%         +0.77%      +1.1804     +1.1775
 Euro/Sterling    EURGBP=     0.8723         0.8739      -0.18%         -1.80%      +0.8749     +0.8723
 NZ               NZD=        0.7264         0.7276      -0.16%         +2.53%      +0.7277     +0.7244
 Dollar/Dollar                                                                                  
 Dollar/Norway    NOK=        7.8049         7.8285      -0.30%         -4.90%      +7.8664     +7.8059
 Euro/Norway      EURNOK=     9.5806         9.5840      -0.04%         -2.72%      +9.6164     +9.5750
 Dollar/Sweden    SEK=        8.3848         8.4169      -0.07%         +2.23%      +8.4511     +8.3867
 Euro/Sweden      EURSEK=     10.2939        10.3016     -0.07%         +4.62%      +10.3330    +10.2850
 
 (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)
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