US dollar close to three-month low after last week's wage report

Strategists and investors have in recent weeks become more hesitant to bet on the direction of US markets in a big way

Data on Friday showed that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.8 per cent in January, from 4.7 per cent previously (Getty)

The US dollar edged lower at the start of the week, after disappointing wage data on Friday indicated that the US Federal Reserve is likely to be in no hurry to raise interest rates.

The dollar index, which measures the strength of the buck against a basket of currencies, traded 0.2 per cent lower at around 99.688 early morning according to Thomson Reuters data. On Thursday last week, the index slipped to 99.233 which was its lowest level in close to three months.

Despite the general resilience of the US economy and a surge in both the dollar and US stocks in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s November election victory, strategists and investors have in recent weeks become more hesitant to bet on the direction of markets in a big way.

"Trump's comments sometimes make us puzzled, and we always have to wait for the details to see what he means," Kaneo Ogino, director at foreign exchange research firm Global-info Co in Tokyo told Reuters.

On Friday, analysts had said that strong jobs data could have been enough to reinvigorate a dollar rally, but although total non-farm payrolls rose by 227,000 in January, much higher than the 175,000 expected by economists, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.8 per cent, from 4.7 per cent previously.

And average earnings grew by only 0.1 per cent in the month, down from the 0.2 per cent expansion in December and below analysts’ expectations, suggesting still muted inflationary pressure.

The pound was little changed against other major currencies on Monday morning.