NEW YORK, Jan 7, Reuters - The U.S. dollar was slightly lower against a basket of major currencies on Friday after the December jobs report that missed expectations.
The dollar index was weakened after the Labor Department said non-farm payrolls rose by 199,000 last month, well short of the 400,000 estimate.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.9% against expectations of 4.1%, while earnings rose by 0.6%, according to analysts.
All those places that are very important for economic growth continue to grow, and that is fantastic, said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.
The top line number is a miss, the under stuff seems to be doing good, albeit not at the pace we would like to see it. The Federal Reserve will begin to hike interest rates at its March meeting, with futures on the federal funds rate implying a 90% chance of a hike, up from 80% on Wednesday.
The dollar index fell by 0.269% to 96.001. The dollar was on track for a weekly gain of its first in three weeks, despite Friday's weakness.
The euro was up 0.3% to $1.1325 after the payrolls report showed little reaction to euro zone inflation rising to 5% in December.
Euro zone policymakers have said they expect inflation to slow down in the year 2022, and that a rate hike won't be needed this year.
The Japanese yen was up 0.12% compared to the dollar's resistance to the dollar at 115.71 per dollar. The dollar hit a five-year high against the yen earlier this week and the yen has suffered the brunt of the damage, with the dollar hitting a five-year high against the yen earlier this week.
The pound was poised for its third consecutive week's gain, but it was trading at $1.356, up 0.24% on the day, even after data showed growth in Britain's construction sector cooled in December as the Omicron variant of coronaviruses spread.
Despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, investors have increasingly viewed it as unlikely to derail the global economy or take more aggressive actions by central banks.
The last price of Bitcoin fell 2.55% to $41,999 in cryptocurrencies. The last price of ether fell by 5.63% to $3,216. 44, on track for a third straight day of decline, has touched its lowest level since Oct 1, after touching its lowest level since October 1.