NEW YORK: The dollar fell against major world currencies on Monday as investors took profits on the greenback's surge last week backed by a surprisingly strong jobs report.
The euro and yen reversed earlier declines against the dollar and gained modestly, with the dollar also losing ground to the British pound and Swiss franc, falling as much as 0.5 percent against both.
The dollar's early gain against the euro came after Reuters reported that the European Central Bank is forming a consensus to cut its deposit interest rate further into negative territory in December.
That news "caught the market off-guard" said Ian Gordon, FX strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, but the effect has since faded because of many variables when it comes to the ECB's plans.
"We've had similar situations in the past where there have been reports that a few of the governing council members were favoring one thing or another and the market moved on it and subsequently it was proven that that didn't represent the entire committee," he said. "So I think people are taking a more circumspect view on it."
The euro was up 0.2 percent against the dollar to $1.0762.
The yen had traded down against the dollar until midmorning in New York, but has since moved up 0.1 percent, pushing the dollar to fresh session lows below 123 yen per dollar.
The dollar soared in trading Friday after the release of the government's U.S. non-farm payroll report showed a rise of 271,000 last month, far exceeding the 180,000 new jobs for October economists polled by Reuters had predicted.
Following the report, 15 of 17 primary dealers, the banks that deal with the Federal Reserve directly, said they expect it to raise rates at its next meeting in December, according to a Reuters poll.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell back after earlier approaching a 6-1/2-month high. The index was last down 0.2 percent at 98.978.
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