1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls on profit-taking

The U.S. dollar dropped against other major currencies on Monday as investors took profit on the greenback's rally in the previous session on strong job gains.

U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 271,000 in October, the largest gain since December 2014. The unemployment rate fell to 5.0 percent, the lowest since April 2008, the Labor Department said on Friday.

Meanwhile, 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 interest rate next month. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 1.25 percent at 99.159 in late trading on Friday, the highest since mid-April.

But the index fell 0.17 percent at 98.999 in late trading on Monday after investors taking profits.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0757 dollars from 1.0747 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.5112 dollars from 1.5043 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7046 dollar from 0.7042 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 123.10 Japanese yen, lower than 123.21 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar declined to 1.0037 Swiss franc from 1.0062 Swiss franc, and it went down to 1.3280 Canadian dollars from 1.3295 Canadian dollars. Endit