The dollar edged up in early London trading on Friday and currency traders' risk appetite was boosted only slightly by better-than-expected jobs data in the United States, as surging coronavirus cases continued to taper market optimism.

U.S. payrolls surged on Thursday but the reaction in currencies was limited. Even after two months of job recovery from May, the U.S. economy has recovered just over a third of an historic plunge of 20.787 million jobs lost in April.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar rose slightly in early London trading, up less than 0.1% at 97.306 at 07:40 GMT . It is on track for its biggest weekly fall since the first week of June.

Riskier currencies edged up, with the New Zealand dollar up 0.3% at 0.652 versus the U.S. dollar and the Australian dollar up 0.1% at 0.69305.

The euro was down slightly against the dollar, at 1.1226 . It gained against the safe Swiss franc and fell versus the commodity-driven Norwegian crown.

Source : Reuter