The U.S. dollar increased against other major currencies on Monday on expectations that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates next week. The closely-watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls came out better than predicted, bolstering market speculation for a rate-hike in Fed's December meeting.
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 211,000 in November, beating market consensus of 190,000, said the U.S. Labor Department Friday. Analysts said the solid job growth "cleared the last hurdle" for the central bank to lift interest rates by year-end for the first time in almost a decade.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.31 percent at 98.658 in late trading. In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0846 dollars from 1.0869 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound declined to 1.5066 dollars from 1.5101 U.S. dollars in the previous session.
The Australian dollar inched down to 0.7266 dollar from 0.7340 dollar. The U.S. dollar bought 123.28 Japanese yen, higher than 123.18 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar hiked to 0.9998 Swiss franc from 0.9975 Swiss franc, and it increased to 1.3510 Canadian dollars from 1.3375 Canadian dollars.
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