Investing.com - The euro was almost unchanged against the broadly stronger dollar in quiet trade on Monday, as expectations for higher U.S. interest rates continued to underpin demand for the greenback.
EUR/USD was last at 1.0964, little changed for the day.
Investor expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve in the coming months were underline after the Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 215,000 jobs last month, slightly lower than forecasts for an increase of 223,000, but still consistent with strong employment growth.
The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.3%, in line with expectations.
Hourly earnings, a component of the jobs report that the Federal Reserve has said must rise, ticked up 0.2%, also matching forecasts after stalling in the previous month.
In the past three months the dollar has been boosted by mounting expectations that the Fed will raise short term interest rates in the coming months, possibly as early as September.
Investor sentiment remained cautious after weak economic reports out of China over the weekend fueled worries over a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
Data on Saturday showed that Chinese exports dropped 8.3% in July, their biggest fall in four months.
Another report on Sunday showed that Chinese producer prices fell to a six-year low in July.
In the euro zone, Greece moved closer to a deal on a third bailout with its international creditors following talks over the weekend.
Greece, which narrowly avoided an exit from the euro zone last month, needs to secure a €86 billion ahead of the August 20 deadline to repay €3.4 billion to the European Central Bank.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was firm at 97.64, not far from last Thursday’s four-month peaks of 98.42.