NEW YORK, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar index decreased against most other major currencies in late trading on Friday, even though the country's nonfarm jobs report came out better than expected.
U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 313,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent, said the U.S. Labor Department on Friday. Economists had expected a gain of 200,000 jobs.
In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to 26.75 U.S. dollars, following a 7-cent gain in January. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 68 cents, or 2.6 percent, missing market consensus.
"The payroll gain was huge, the biggest in over a year and a half. But wage pressures retreated and the unemployment rate was stable thanks to a surge in participation and immigration," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.
Overseas, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Friday opted to maintain its aggressive monetary easing program as it continues to work towards hitting its lofty 2 percent inflation target.
The central bank's policy board members voted at the end of a two-day meeting to continue with its yield curve control comprising an interest rate of minus 0.1 percent.
The BOJ also opted to keep its government bond purchases at the same level, which are aimed at steering the 10-year yield to around zero percent.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.07 percent at 90.097 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.2313 dollars from 1.2307 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.3848 dollars from 1.3803 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar gained to 0.7847 dollar from 0.7792 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 106.79 Japanese yen, higher than 106.23 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.9510 Swiss franc from 0.9514 Swiss franc, and it fell to 1.2833 Canadian dollars from 1.2902 Canadian dollars.
