Dollar slides from 3-month high on weak details of US jobs report

NEW YORK: The dollar slipped from a three-month high on Friday, weighed down by some of the weaker details of what was an overall strong US non-farm payrolls report for June.

Despite Friday's slide, the dollar was still poised to end the week on a positive note, with a 0.6% gain. Going into the report, the dollar traded higher on the expectation of a robust jobs number.

Data showed that US nonfarm payrolls did beat expectations, increasing by 850,000 jobs last month after rising 583,000 in May. But the unemployment rate rose to 5.9% from 5.8% in May, while the closely-watched average hourly earnings, a gauge of wage inflation, rose 0.3% last month, lower than the consensus forecast for a 0.4% increase.

"We initially reacted positively to the headline, which was stronger than expected," said Vassili Serebriakov, FX strategist, at UBS in New York. "And then moved a little lower because of some of the weaker details of the report such as the higher unemployment rate and the higher bar for a positive surprise."

In mid-morning trading, the dollar index fell 0.2% to 92.421, after earlier hitting a three-month high of 92.759.

The greenback has strengthened broadly since the US Federal Reserve surprised markets last month by signalling it could tighten policy earlier than expected to curb inflation.

The euro was slightly higher on the day at $1.1854, after trading lower before the jobs report.

Against the yen, the dollar slid 0.4% to 111.185 yen. On Thursday, the greenback hit a 15-month peak versus the Japanese currency.