NEW YORK :The U.S. dollar hovered near a seven-week high on Monday as investors reassessed their positions following Friday’s strong U.S. jobs data and amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
The closely-watched jobs report for September showed the biggest jump in payrolls for six months, a drop in the unemployment rate and solid wage rises, prompting markets to scale back bets on further hefty U.S. rate cuts.
The dollar index was down 0.06 per cent at 102.47, having risen on Friday to 102.69, its highest level since mid August. The dollar logged a weekly gain of more than 2 per cent last week, its biggest in two years.
“We’re still having a bit of follow through from Friday’s jobs data and you can see this on the US interest rates and I think this is what’s helping give the dollar a bit of a lift here today against most of the major currencies,” said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex in New York.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened after Atsushi Mimura, Japan’s top currency diplomat, issued a warning against speculative moves on the foreign exchange market.
Separately, Katsunobu Kato, the nation’s newly appointed finance minister, said the government would monitor the impact of rapid currency moves and take action if necessary.
The dollar was last down 0.37 per cent at 148.08 yen.
“The market got cautious as we approached 150 on the yen, but I don’t think this is a big move yet,” Chandler said.
In the Middle East, Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel’s third largest city Haifa early on Monday as Israeli forces looked poised to expand ground incursions into southern Lebanon on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread conflict across the Middle East.
The euro stood was flat at $1.097575, after German industrial orders