The dollar traded higher against its major rivals today, after a bullish US jobs report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve would move sooner to lift rates from a 46-year low.
Although the US currency initially struggled against the yen on selling by Japanese exporters and as steep gains in Tokyo share prices fueled demand for the yen from foreign investors, it was fetching 104.64/72 yen as of 6 a.m. (Irish time).
That compares with 104.46/54 in late US trade on Friday.
"Now that (dollar) selling has receded, it's coming back up on short-covering as the market was short (on dollars) going into the jobs data on Friday," said a spot trader at a US bank.
Data on Friday showed that US non-farm payrolls climbed 308,000 in March, the biggest gain in four years and more than twice what the market was expecting.
An improvement in jobs data is seen key to the Fed raising its funds rate from a 1958 low of one perc ent, which would increase the allure of dollar-denominated assets for foreign investors.
The euro rowed back to $1.2097/02 from $1.2132/38, edging closer to a four-month low of 1.2045 hit late last month.
Sterling slipped to $1.8272/76 compared with 1.8302/07.
"The euro is reacting to (strong U.S.) fundamentals. I think there is a chance that we could see the euro fall under 1.2," said Mr Mitsuo Imaizumi, deputy general manager of the international bond and forex department at Daiwa Securities SMBC.