WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar suffered a mild setback in early New York session on Friday after data showing a much smaller than expected increase in non-farm payroll employment growth and an unexpected contraction in the nation's manufacturing activity last month.
However, the currency recovered swiftly and moved higher as the day progressed as investors looked ahead to the upcoming presidential election and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement next week.
Data from the Labor Department showed much weaker than expected job growth in the month of October. The data said non-farm payroll employment crept up by 12,000 jobs in October after jumping by a downwardly revised 223,000 jobs in September.
Economists had expected employment to climb by 113,000 jobs compared to the surge of 254,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, the report said the unemployment rate came in at 4.1% in October, unchanged from September and in line with economist estimates.
A report released by the Institute for Supply Management on Friday showed U.S. manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted at a modestly faster rate in the month of October.
The ISM said its manufacturing PMI fell to 46.5 in October from 47.2 in September, with a reading below 50 indicating contraction. Economists had expected the index to inch up to 47.6.
With the unexpected decrease, the manufacturing PMI dropped to its lowest level since hitting 46.5 in July 2023.
The dollar index climbed to 104.32, gaining 0.33%.
Against the Euro, the dollar firmed to 1.0837 after having weakened to 1.0908 earlier in the day. Against Pound Sterling, the dollar weakened to 1.2981 before recovering to 1.2921, but still trailed the previous closing value of 1.2899.
The dollar strengthened against the Japanese currency, fetching 152.98 yen a unit, compared to 152.03 yen Thursday evening. Against the Aussie, the dollar firmed to 0.6559 from 0.6583.
The Swiss franc weakened to 0.8698 a unit of U.S. dollar from 0.8634, while the Loonie was down at 1.3955 a unit of the U.S. currency.
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