Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars dropped against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, but they both remained close to multi-month highs as sentiment on the greenback remained fragile after Friday’s mixed U.S. jobs report.
AUD/USD slid 0.42% to 0.7406, after rising to eight-month highs of 0.7445 on Friday.
The Labor Department reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 242,000 new jobs last month, easily outstripping forecasts for wage growth of 190,000.
The unemployment rate held steady at an eight-year low of 4.9%, in line with forecasts.
But average hourly earnings fell by 0.1% during February, reversing the 0.5% rise seen in January. The drop in average earnings lowered the year-on-year gain in earnings to 2.2% from 2.5% in January.
The weak wage numbers indicated that consumer inflation is likely to remain muted. Federal Reserve policymakers are watching inflation closely as they try to determine when to raise rates again.
NZD/USD retreated 0.56% to 0.6779, off Friday’s two-month peak of 0.6822.
Investors also continued to focus on the oil market, as prices rose above $36 a barrel for the first time since January 6.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.19% at 97.43.