U.S. dollar rallies after upbeat jobs report

The U.S. dollar rose against most other major currencies on Friday as the country' s January jobs report came in much better than expected.

U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 227,000 in January, well above market consensus of 175,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate was little changed at 4.8 percent.

In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents to 26.00 U.S. dollars, following a 6-cent increase in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the Non-Manufacturing Index, which measures activity in the U.S. service sector, registered 56.5 percent in January, missing market expectations of 57.0, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in its monthly survey Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.12 percent at 99.913 in late trading Thursday.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0766 dollars from 1.0764 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dipped to 1.2481 dollars from 1.2527 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.7675 dollar from 0.7662 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 112.97 Japanese yen, higher than 112.71 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar gained to 0.9938 Swiss francs from 0.9925 Swiss francs, and it edged up to 1.3028 Canadian dollars from 1.3027 Canadian dollars. Endit