Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was trading close to seven-month highs against the Swiss franc on Tuesday, as the greenback regained strength after Friday's disappointing U.S. employment data and investors eyed the release of an upcoming report on U.S. service sector activity.
USD/CHF hit 0.9099 during European early afternoon trade, the pair's highest since July 31; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.9093, gaining 0.30%.
The pair was likely to find resistance at 0.9156 and support at 0.9057, Monday's low.
The dollar regained strength after the latest U.S. employment report on Friday showing that jobs growth slowed slightly in July prompted investors to curtail expectations on the timing of a possible rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in July, below forecasts for 233,000, while the unemployment rate ticked higher and wage growth was flat, pointing to underlying slack in the economy.
The Swissie was steady against the euro, with EUR/CHF inching up 0.05% to 1.2175.
In the euro zone, data ealier showed that Italy’s services purchasing managers index slowed to 52.8 in July from 53.9 in June. Economists had expected a reading of 54.0.
Service sector activity in German and Spain grew last month, while the expansion in the French service sector remained marginal.
The euro area's services PMI came in at 54.2, up from 52.2 in June, but slowing slightly from a preliminary reading of 54.4.
The data added to the view that the recovery in the euro zone is losing momentum as investors looked ahead to the outcome of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy meeting on Thursday.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on factory orders, while the Institute of Supply Management was to release data on service sector growth.