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The dollar advanced against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners as a government report showed employers eliminated fewer jobs in July than economists forecast.

The yen dropped against all of its major counterparts as the payroll report indicated a recovery in the world’s largest economy, encouraging Japanese investors to buy higher-yielding assets overseas.

The dollar climbed 0.4 percent to $1.4283 per euro at 9:45 a.m. in New York, from $1.4345 yesterday. The U.S. currency gained 1.4 percent to 96.78 yen from 95.46. The euro advanced 1.3 percent to 138.25 yen from 136.94.

Futures on the Chicago Board of Trade indicated a 74 percent chance that the Fed will increase the target lending rate from its range of zero to 0.25 percent by its January meeting, compared with 66 percent odds a month ago.

The worst U.S. economic slump since the Great Depression abated in the second quarter as government spending programs started to kick in, while the sharpest pullback by consumers since 1980 augured a muted recovery.

Gross domestic product shrank at a better-than-forecast 1 percent annual pace after a 6.4 percent drop the prior three months, Commerce Department figures showed yesterday in Washington. A survey of purchasing managers showed separately that business contracted less than estimated in July.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, fell at a 1.2 percent pace following a 0.6 percent increase in the prior quarter. It was forecast to drop 0.5 percent, according to the survey median. Purchases slid 2 percent since the peak at the end of 2007 — the most since a 2.4 percent decline in the 1980 recession.

Source: bloomberg.com