Investing.com - The dollar held steady against most major currencies on Monday, mainly as investors remained in standby mode ahead of key central bank meetings this week.
Sentiments that Friday's July jobs report was better than initially interpreted coupled with rising U.S. stock prices gave the greenback some support over its peers.
In U.S. trading on Monday, EUR/USD was down 0.06% at 1.3420.
Later this week, the Bank of England, the Bank of Europe and the Reserve Bank of Australia will unveil their latest decisions on interest rates and monetary policy, which kept many on the sidelines on Monday and stabilized the dollar.
U.S. stocks rose on Monday after legendary investor Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRKa) beat expectations, which gave the dollar some support.
Elsewhere, a second take on Friday's U.S. July jobs report left investors concluding the U.S. labor market continues to improve despite persistent slackness, which also gave the dollar support.
The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July, missing expectations for an increase of 233,000, though July marked the sixth consecutive month that the U.S. economy created over 200,000 new payrolls.
The report also showed that the U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2% last month from 6.1% in June. Analysts had expected the rate to remain unchanged in July, though the report revealed that more unemployed Americans were entering the labor force in search of work last month, a positive sign.
The unemployment rate does not include discouraged unemployed individuals who have given up actively searching for work, so a decision by many to look for jobs can send the headline rate higher, though it also suggests out-of-work Americans are more hopeful with their job prospects.
The dollar was down against the yen, with USD/JPY down 0.07% at 102.54, and up against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF up 0.06% at 0.9067.
The greenback was down against the pound, with GBP/USD up 0.21% at 1.6858.
The U.K. construction purchasing managers’ index slowed to 62.4 in July from 62.6 in June, better than expectations for a 62.0 reading.
The overall pace of growth was still the fastest since 2007, which gave the pound an edge over the dollar.
The dollar was down against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD down 0.07% at 1.0909, AUD/USD up 0.21% at 0.9334 and NZD/USD up 0.12% at 0.8524.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.01% at 81.40.
On Tuesday, the U.S. is to publish data on factory orders, while the Institute of Supply Management is to release data on service-sector activity.