Investing.com - The dollar fell to one-month lows against the yen on Monday and was trading close to one week lows against the euro after Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls showed that the economy added far fewer than expected jobs last month.
USD/JPY hit lows of 103.26, the weakest level since December 18 and was last down 0.74% to 103.39.
The latest employment report showed that the U.S. economy added 74,000 jobs in December, the smallest increase since January 2011 and well below expectations for 196,000 new jobs.
The unemployment rate fell to a five year low of 6.7% from 7% in November, but this was due in part to people dropping out of the labor force.
The surprisingly weak data sparked concerns that the Federal Reserve will adopt a more cautious approach to scaling back its stimulus program, after cutting it by USD10 billion in December, reducing it to USD75 billion-a-month.
The dollar little changed against the euro, with EUR/USD dipping 0.04% to 1.3663.
In the euro zone, data on Monday showed that Italian industrial output rose for a third consecutive in November, rising 0.3% from a month earlier.
The dollar pushed higher against the pound and the Swiss franc, with GBP/USD down 0.23% to 1.6444 and USD/CHF inching up 0.09% to 0.9032.
AUD/USD was up 0.52% to 0.9042 and NZD/USD gained 0.32% to trade at 0.8335.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD was up 0.29% to 1.0923, not far from the four year highs of 1.0944 struck on Friday.
The Canadian dollar remained under heavy selling pressure after data on Friday showed that the Canadian economy unexpectedly shed 45,900 jobs last month. The country’s unemployment rate rose to 7.2%, rising above the U.S. unemployment rate for the first time since September 2008.
The weak data added to expectations that the Bank of Canada will stick to its dovish stance on interest rates.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, edged down 0.03% to 80.71.