NEW YORK: The dollar added gains broadly on Friday as a much stronger-than-expected rise in US payrolls in December revived expectations the Federal Reserve raise interest rates by the end of the first quarter.
The US Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls grew by 292,000 last month, compared with an 200,000 increase forecast among analysts polled by Reuters.
The jobless rate held steady at a 7-1/2-year low of 5 percent even as more people entered the labor force, a sign of confidence in the labor market. However, average hourly earnings were unchanged last month, falling short of the 0.2 percent rise projected by analysts.
The persistent lack of faster wage growth may temper the urgency for Fed policy-makers to raise rates, analysts said.
The dollar index which measures the greenback against a group of six currencies was last up 0.8 percent at 99.049, which was more than half a percentage point below the one-month high set earlier this week.
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