The U.S. dollar advanced against other major currencies on Monday as signs of rising wage inflation in Friday’s U.S. jobs report could keep the Federal Reserve on course for dollar-supportive interest-rate tightening later this year.
The greenback was broadly firmer in response. One dollar USDJPY, +1.24% bought ¥108.20 up 1% from ¥107.12 late Friday in New York. Euro/dollar EURUSD, -0.1140% traded at $1.1377, compared with $1.1406 at the end of last week. The British pound GBPUSD, -0.0277% was at $1.4446, basically unchanged from late Friday.
The U.S. Dollar Index DXY, +0.15% , which measures the buck against about a half-dozen other currencies, traded up 0.1% at 94.00.
In Friday’s report, U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 160,000 jobs in April, undershooting a 205,000 increase expected, but average hourly earnings of private-sector workers advanced 2.5% in April from a year earlier.
Other labor market signs give dollar bulls hope. In a speech in London Monday, Fed member Charles Evans also pointed to rising labor participation.
