Investing.com - The dollar was close to multi-year highs against the yen and the euro on Monday after Friday’s robust U.S. jobs report for November highlighted the diverging economic recovery in the U.S. and Europe and Japan.
Official data on Friday showed that the U.S. economy added 321,000 jobs in November, far more than the 225,000 forecast by economists and the largest monthly increase in almost three years.
September’s figure was revised up to 243,000 from a previously reported 214,000 and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at a six-year low of 5.8%.
The unusually strong data saw investors bring forward expectations for the first hike in U.S. interest rates to mid-2015 from September 2015 before the report.
USD/JPY touched fresh seven year highs of 121.85 overnight and was last at 121.33, easing 0.09%.
The yen showed little reaction after data on Monday showed that Japan’s third quarter economic contraction was larger than initially estimated.
Revised data showed that gross domestic product contracted by an annualized 1.9%, more than the preliminary estimate of a 1.6% decline. On a quarter-over-quarter basis the economy contracted by 0.5% in the three months to September, compared to a preliminary estimate of a 0.4% contraction.
A separate report showed that Chinese exports slowed in November, adding to concerns over a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
EUR/USD was flat at 1.2280, the lowest level since August 2012.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, hit a peak of 89.53, the strongest level since March 2009.