Investing.com - The dollar slumped against a basket of major currencies on Friday, despite a better than expected February nonfarm payrolls report while weaker wage growth weighed on upside momentum.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, slipped 0.61% to 101.36.
The dollar slumped to a three-week low, despite the U.S. economy adding more jobs than expected in February, as weaker than expected wage growth fuelled concerns that the pace of rate hikes this year would be slower than previously anticipated.
The Labor Department's non-farm payrolls report showed employers added 235,000 jobs last month, beating expectations for 200,000.
Wage growth stuttered in February and rose by only 0.2% compared to forecasts of a 0.3% increase.
Meanwhile the single currency continued to trade higher against greenback, following Thursday’s hawkish comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. Mr Draghi said “there is no longer that sense of urgency” for the ECB to use ultra-loose monetary policy to achieve its mandates.
The EUR/USD gained 0.92% to $1.0673, just shy of its session high of $1.0677 while EUR/GBP gained 0.90% to 0.86771.
Elsewhere, the dollar struggled against its Canadian counterpart, after a bullish Canadian jobs report for February added pressure on the greenback with USD/CAD down 0.37% to $1.3460.
Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 6.6% last month from 6.8% in January. Analysts had expected an unchanged reading last month.
Sterling gained against the greenback to trade slightly higher at $1.2170 while USD/JPY turned negative to trade at 114.80 down 0.07%.