Investing.com - The dollar pushed higher against the other major currencies in quiet trade on Monday, as Friday’s downbeat U.S. jobs report failed to crush hopes for a U.S. rate hike before the year end.
Trading volumes were expected to remain thin, with most banks and federal institutions closed for the Columbus Day holiday. That also means no major data releases are on tap for Monday.
EUR/USD slid 0.37% to 1.1159.
The greenback initially weakened after the U.S. Labor Department said on Friday that the economy added 156,000 jobs in September, compared to expectations for 175,000.
The report also showed that the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.0% last month from 4.9% in August.
However, the disappointing data was not expected to prevent the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates later this year.
GBP/USD declined 0.38% to trade at a 31-year low of 1.2387.
The pound erased the sharp losses posted on Friday but remained under pressure amid sustained concerns over a ‘hard Brexit’ for Britain.
Analysts did not rule out the possibility of a “fat finger”, or human error, but most speculated that it could have caused by algorithms picking up on comments from French President François Hollande, who took a rough position on the Brexit, with the move exacerbated by thin trade.
Elsewhere, USD/JPY gained 0.46% to 103.38, while USD/CHF climbed 0.53% to 0.9824.
The Australian dollar was higher, with AUD/USD up 0.15% at 0.7597, while NZD/USD dropped 0.53% to 0.7129.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD shed 0.26% to trade at 1.3262, still close to Friday’s seven-month peak of 1.3314.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.30% at 96.81, not far from Friday’s more than two-month high of 97.22.