Investing.com - The dollar remained broadly higher against a basket of other major currencies in quiet trade on Tuesday, as the greenback continued to recover from sharp losses posted after Friday's disappointing U.S. employment report.
The dollar had come under broad selling pressure after the Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 126,000 new jobs in March, less than half of February’s gain and the smallest increase since December 2013.
The report added to doubts over the strength of the economic recovery, prompting investors to push back expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve to the end of the year from midyear.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.60% to 97.79.
EUR/USD retreated 0.65% to 1.0850.
Market research group Markit earlier reported that the euro zone's services purchasing managers' index slipped to 54.2 last month, from 54.3 in February. Analysts had expected the index to remain unchanged.
Germany's services PMI rose to 55.4 in March from a reading of 55.3 the previous month, Markit also reported, confounding expectations for the index to remain unchanged.
However, France's services PMI fell to 52.4 last month from 52.8 in February, compared to expectations for an unchanged reading.
The pound held steady, with GBP/USD at 1.4886 even as data showed that U.K. service sector activity expanded at the fastest rate in seven months in March.
Markit said the U.K. services PMI increased to 58.9 last month from a reading of 56.7 in February. Analysts had expected the index to rise to 57.0 in March.
Elsewhere, the dollar remained higher against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY climbing 0.55% to 120.20 and with USD/CHF rising 0.38% to 0.9624.
The Australian trimmed gains but remained higher, with AUD/USD up 0.62% at 0.7639.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday that retail sales rose 0.7% in February, exceeding expectations for a 0.4% gain. January's figure was revised to a 0.5% increase from a previously estimated 0.4% uptick.
In addition, the Reserve Bank of Australia held its benchmark interest rate at 2.25% on Tuesday, in a widely expected decision.
Meanwhile, NZD/USD slid 0.30% to 0.7289 and USD/CAD added 0.30% to trade at 1.2519.