Investing.com - A less-than-stellar October jobs report in the U.S. sent the dollar softening against most major currencies on Friday as investors sold the greenback for profits.
Diverging monetary policies have sent the U.S. currency strengthening to four-year highs against its peers in recent sessions.
In U.S. trading on Friday, EUR/USD was up 0.52% at 1.2436.
The Department of Labor reported earlier that the U.S. economy added 214,000 jobs in October, missing expectations for an increase of 231,000. The number of jobs added in September was revised to 256,000 from a previously estimated 248,000.
The report also revealed that the U.S. unemployment rate ticked down to 5.8% in October from 5.9% in September. Analysts had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged last month.
While not overwhelmingly disappointing, the less-than-stellar report gave investors room to sell the greenback for profits and take time to rethink when the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates next year.
The dollar has firmed in recent weeks as investors prepare for U.S. monetary policy to grow less accommodative while Europe and Japan move in the opposite direction.
The Fed recently closed its monthly bond-buying program and is expected to raise interest rates some time in 2015, though the timing as to when next year benchmark borrowing costs may rise remains up in the air thanks to hit-or-miss U.S. data.
The dollar was down against the yen, with USD/JPY down 0.60% at 114.54, and down against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF down 0.65% at 0.9670.
The greenback was down against the pound, with GBP/USD up 0.23% at 1.5869.
The dollar was down against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD down 0.81% at 1.1332, AUD/USD up 0.96% at 0.8638 and NZD/USD up 0.77% at 0.7751.
The US dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.61% at 87.68.