1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises on strong nonfarm payrolls

The U.S. dollar soared against other major currencies Friday as the country's closely-watched nonfarm payroll report came out better than expected.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 271,000 in October, soundly beating market consensus of a rise of 190,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday.

Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 9 cents to 25.20 U.S. dollars, following little change in September.

The robust employment report bolstered market expectation for the Federal Reserve to lift the interest rates by year-end.

The Fed Chair Janet Yellen said earlier this week that the U.S. economy is "performing well" and that "December would be a live possibility" for a rate increase at the Fed's next monetary policy meeting.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 1.25 percent at 99.159 in late trading, the highest level since mid-April.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.0747 dollars from 1.0883 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound declined to 1.5043 dollars from 1.5213 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar dropped to 0.7042 U.S. dollar from 0.7143 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 123.21 Japanese yen, higher than 121.69 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar climbed to 1.0062 Swiss franc from 0.9952 Swiss franc and went up to 1.3295 Canadian dollars from 1.3165 Canadian dollars. Endit