Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved lower against their U.S. counterpart on Monday, as the greenback remained supported by Friday’s upbeat U.S. employment data and as lower oil prices weighed on the commodity currencies.
AUD/USD slipped 0.20% to 0.7556, off two-and-a-half week highs of 0.7576 hit overnight.
The Labor Department reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 287,000 jobs last month, well above the 175,000 jobs forecast by economists.
Average hourly earnings were up 2.6% compared with a year earlier.
But the report also showed that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.9% and May’s payrolls figure was revised down to 11,000 from a previously reported 38,000, the smallest monthly increase since 2010.
The strong jobs report was seen as unlikely to alter the Federal Reserve’s cautious plans for raising interest rates.
NZD/USD dropped 0.59% to trade at 0.7266, pulling away from Friday’s 14-month high of 0.7310.
Meanwhile, the commodity currencies weakened as oil prices slid lower on Monday, as global economic concerns continued to weigh.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.26% at 96.56, close to Friday’s two-week highs of 96.72.