Monday, supported by the recent rise of the dollar on Friday, the greenback remained firm against its major currency rivals. The dollar index indicated the greenback stance, which slightly edged and settled at 89.222 from 89.38 reached on Friday last week. This was supported by the recent U.S. payrolls report on Friday which indicated the rapid rise of wages in the United States in more than 8 and ½ years, giving analysts and investors the hint to expect for inflation.
In accordance to this, the jobs report delivered assistance for the U.S. dollar, after the currency fell to a three-year low of 88.438 in January, which was brought by anxieties about the United States trade protectionism and shrinking yield advantage.
The United States dollar settled at 109.975 yen JPY= against the Japanese safe-haven yen, which was 0.2% lower from their previous settlement of 110.485 yen JPY=, touched on Friday. Against the euro, the dollar shed 0.5% and settled at $1.2450 EUR= from 1.2538 capped on January 26th; in addition, the dollar settled at $1.4111 GBP=D3 against the British pound sterling.