Summary The dollar surged higher Friday after a surprisingly upbeat US jobs report.
NEW YORK (AFP) - The dollar surged higher Friday after a surprisingly upbeat US jobs report fueled speculation that the Federal Reserve would stay on track to raise interest rates in mid-year.
The Labor Department reported the US economy added 257,000 jobs in January and revised upward already healthy growth in the prior two months, showing the best gains over three months since 1997.
The unemployment rate edged up to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent, but that was in part because more people were actively seeking jobs.
Most economists said the fresh data showed real signs of the economy gaining traction after a bumpy 2014 during which it grew a modest 2.4 percent, and could reinforce the Federal Reserve s plan to lift interest rates that have been pegged near zero since late 2008.
"With three-month average job growth of 336,000, the Fed may start thinking about liftoff before June," said Chris Low of FTN Financial.
Barclays analysts, however, noted some data weaknesses that could stay the Fed s hands to even later in the year. "Modest wage gains and a deceleration in underlying inflation skew the risks toward a later than mid-2015 liftoff," they said in a research note.
Greece cast a cloud of uncertainty over the euro, as the country s efforts to renogotiate an international bailout appeared to go nowhere.
Greece s new government put itself back on a collision course with the European Union by demanding temporary funding before renegotiating its foreign loans, prompting fresh warnings of a default,
Credit rating agency Standard and Poor s downgraded Greece a notch, and warned of the renewed prospect of a Greek exit from the eurozone. And rival Moody s placed Greece s credit rating on review for a downgrade, citing "high uncertainty" about the country s talks with creditors.
