Investing.com - The dollar remained steady against the euro and the yen on Monday as Friday’s upbeat U.S. jobs report indicated that the economic recovery is continuing, while the Australian dollar was lower after surprisingly weak trade data from China.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.3871, holding below Friday’s two-and-a-half year peaks of 1.3915.
Data on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in February, well above expectations for 149,000 new jobs. The strong figure indicated that the Federal Reserve is likely to continue to scale back its stimulus program, which has weighed on the value of the dollar.
Demand for the single currency continued to be underpinned as expectations for further easing by the European Central Bank eased, after the bank refrained from tightening monetary policy last week.
USD/JPY was trading at 103.23, after falling to session lows of 102.94 earlier.
Safe haven demand for the yen was boosted after data over the weekend showed that Chinese exports fell 18.1% on a year-over-year basis in February, confounding expectations for a 6.8% increase.
A separate report showed that the annual rate of inflation in China slowed to 2.0% in February, from 2.5% in January.
The unexpectedly weak data raised fresh concerns over the strength of the world’s second-largest economy.
The yen received an additional boost after data on Monday showed that Japan posted record current account deficit of 1.589 trillion in January and fourth quarter growth was revised down.
Japan's economy grew 0.2% in the final three months of 2013, below the preliminary estimate for growth of 0.3%. On a year-over-year basis, the economy expanded by 0.7%, compared to an initial estimate of 1.0%.
Elsewhere, the dollar was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.49% to 1.6631. The dollar was almost unchanged against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF edging up 0.05% to 0.8782.
The Australian dollar was trading at session lows, with AUD/USD falling 0.55% to 0.9020. China is Australia’s largest export market, which makes the Australian dollar sensitive to fluctuations in Chinese economic reports.
Meanwhile, NZD/USD dipped 0.08% to 0.8462. The U.S. dollar pushed higher against the Canadian dollar, with USD/CAD rising 0.18% to 1.1106.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, edged up 0.03% to 79.89.