Investing.com - The dollar was steady against a basket of other major currencies on Monday investors turned their attention to upcoming Federal Reserve minutes following last week’s stronger than forecast U.S. jobs report.
The dollar continued to be underpinned after official data last week showed that the U.S. economy added a larger-than-forecast 288,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 6.1%, the lowest in almost six years.
The strong data sparked speculation that the Federal Reserve could bring forward its timetable for raising interest rates. Investors were looking to Wednesday’s minutes of the Fed’s June meeting for further indications on its monetary policy stance.
EUR/USD was at 1.3598, not far from the two-week lows of 1.3576 reached earlier in the session.
The euro remained under pressure after European Central Bank Vice President Benoit Coeure said Sunday that rates will remain on hold for an extended period to ensure monetary stability in the euro zone.
Data on Monday showing that German industrial output unexpectedly dropped in May also weighed on the single currency.
Sterling drifted down from almost six-year highs, with GBP/USD slipping 0.19% to 1.7126. The pair rose to highs of 1.7178 on Friday, the most since October 2008.
The pound has strengthened against the dollar and the euro this year amid expectations that the deepening economic recovery in the U.K. will prompt the Bank of England to raise interest rates before the end of 2014.
Elsewhere, the dollar slid lower against the Japanese currency, with USD/JPY easing 0.22% to 101.83, off last Thursday’s two-week high of 102.25.
The greenback pushed higher against the Canadian dollar, with USD/CAD rising 0.17% to 1.0670. The pair briefly touched session lows of 1.0631 earlier, after official data showed that Canadian building permits rose at the fastest rate in 10 months in May.
Elsewhere, AUD/USD was little changed at 0.9368, while NZD/USD added 0.24% to trade at 0.8760.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was steady at 80.30, holding below last Thursday’s two-week highs of 80.60.