Dollar jumps against yen on US job data

The US dollar fell against most major currencies on Friday but it jumped against the Japanese yen on strong US non-farm job data for November. The US non-farm payroll grew by 203,000 in November while the unemployment rate edged down to 7 percent from 7.3 percent in the prior month, the Labor Department said. However, a string of positive US data released this week failed to lift the dollar. The US economy increased at an annual rate of 3.6 percent in the third quarter before a 16-day partial government shutdown, up from an initial reading of 2.8 percent, the U.S. Commerce Department reported on Thursday. In the previous session, the dollar fell versus the euro as the European Central Bank refrained from further monetary stimulus. The euro/dollar rate rose to a five-week high after the ECB kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged and didn't give hints about introducing negative deposit rate after a monetary policy meeting. Although recent data showed the U.S. has been on the course of recovery, most analysts still think the Federal Reserve would like to see more evidence before pulling back on asset purchases. The next Fed's policy meeting is on Dec. 17-18. In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.3696 dollars from 1.3675 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.6344 dollars from 1.6339 dollars. The Australian dollar climbed to 0.9097 dollar from 0.9065 dollar. The dollar bought 102.91 Japanese yen, lower than 101.69 yen of the previous session. The dollar moved down to 0.8925 Swiss franc from 0.8959 Swiss franc and it went up to 1.0661 Canadian dollars from 1.0649 Canadian dollars.