NEW YORK, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar increased against most other major currencies on Friday as the country's nonfarm jobs report came out better than expected.
U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 200,000 in January, beating market consensus of 175,000, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.
In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by nine cents to 26.74 dollars, following an 11-cent gain in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 75 cents, or 2.9 percent.
"Average hourly earnings rose the most since a 2.9 percent rise in June 2009, but have been so volatile in the past 12 months, it's not yet possible to determine a pattern of wage pressures," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.
"The unemployment rate has stabilized at 4.1 percent for now, but we expect it will drop again in the months ahead," he added.
U.S. factory orders also came out positive. New orders for manufactured goods in December increased 8.5 billion U.S. dollars or 1.7 percent to 498.2 billion dollar, also above market estimates, the Commerce Department announced Friday.
Meanwhile, the final reading of the consumer sentiment for January came in at 95.7, higher than previous month's reading of 94.4, said the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment on Friday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.58 percent at 89.182 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.2452 dollars from 1.2516 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dipped to 1.4118 dollars from 1.4270 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar lost to 0.7926 dollar from 0.8040 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 110.26 Japanese yen, higher than 109.37 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9318 Swiss franc from 0.9269 Swiss francs, and it moved up to 1.2393 Canadian dollars from 1.2267 Canadian dollars.
