Investing.com -- EUR/USD rose moderately on Friday extending gains from a recent hot streak, as a gloomy U.S. jobs report for September strengthened dovish arguments for a delayed rate by the Federal Reserve.
The currency pair traded in a brought range between 1.1150 and 1.1317 before settling at 1.1211, up 0.0016 or 0.14% on the session. At one point, the euro reached its highest level against the dollar since September 21. The euro has now closed higher against its American counterpart in seven of the last nine sessions. The euro ended the week against the dollar, though, virtually unchanged only gaining roughly 0.18% over the last five trading days.
EUR/USD likely gained support at 1.1088, the low from Sept. 4 and was met with resistance at 1.1460, the high from Sept. 18.
On Friday morning, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics said non-farm payrolls for the month of September increased by 142,000, significantly below consensus estimates from analysts of a 203,000 gain. The figure also fell well below low end of estimates of a 180,000 increase. Severe declines in manufacturing and mining employment restrained overall job gains as the sectors lost 9,000 and 13,000 positions respectively. A month earlier, the manufacturing industry lost 18,000 jobs in August, while mining positions nationwide decreased by 22,000.
There were other signs of weakness within the dreary report. After surging by 0.3% on a monthly basis in August, hourly wages remained unchanged in September. Analysts expected hourly earnings to tick up on the month by 0.2%. On a yearly basis, hourly wages were only up 2.2% over the last 12 months. The labor participation rate also fell by 0.2% to 62.4%, providing indications that that the labor market is shrinking. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, held steady at 5.1% in line with analysts' expectations.
The U-6 unemployment rate, a broader gauge of the employment situation in the U.S., fell 0.3% to 10.0%. The rate, which is a preferred measure of unemployment by Fed chair Janet Yellen, tracks the number of workers marginally attached to the labor force as well as part-time workers. Last September, the rate peaked at 11.7%. Marginally attached workers are defined as those who are not working or not looking for work, but have looked for work over the last 12 months.
Last month, the Federal Open Market Committee sent strong indications that it wanted to see continued improvement in the labor market before it hiked short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
Yields on the U.S. 10-Year fell to an intraday low of 1.904%, dropping below 2% for the first time since late-August. At Friday's close, yields on 10-year Treasuries stood at 1.993%, down roughly five basis points on the day.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the strength of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, fell more than 0.70% to an intraday low of 95.30, its lowest level in two weeks. One day earlier, the index reached as high as 96.64, its highest level in a month. The index closed on Friday at 96.05, down 0.31% for the session.