Investing.com - The pound moved higher against the softer dollar on Monday as Friday’s weaker than expected U.S. nonfarm payrolls report saw investors book profits in the greenback following its recent rally.
GBP/USD was up 0.23% to 1.5908, off the 14-month lows of 1.5788 struck on Friday.
The dollar turned lower after data on Friday showed that though employment growth was solid, the U.S. economy added fewer than expected jobs last month.
The Labor Department said 214,000 jobs were created in October, falling short of expectations of 231,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate ticked down to a fresh six-year low of 5.8% from 5.9% in September.
The US dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.38% to 87.32, off Friday’s four-and-a-half year peaks of 88.31.
Sterling’s gains were held in check after surveys of the U.K. service and manufacturing sectors last week added to worries that the rate of the economic recovery is slowing. The reports prompted investors to push back expectations for a rate hike by the Bank of England and sent the pound to 14-month lows against the dollar.
Market watchers were looking ahead to Thursday’s quarterly inflation report from the BoE for further indications on the future possible direction of monetary policy.
The pound was slightly lower against the euro, with EUR/GBP easing up 0.14% to 0.7859.
In the euro zone, data on Monday showed that Italian industrial production fell 0.9% from a month earlier in September, compared to expectations for a 0.2% gain.
Italian industrial output was down 1.1% in the third quarter, accelerating from a 0.5% decline in the three months to June. It was the largest decline since the last three months of 2012.
The report fuelled fears that Friday’s data on third quarter growth will show that the country has fallen back into a recession after the economy contracted by 0.2% in the second quarter.