NEW YORK CITY Aug 5 AFP – The dollar has edged higher against the euro after a better-than-expected report on the US services sector.

Near 2200 GMT on Monday (0800 Tuesday AEST) the euro bought $1.3259 compared with $1.3279 Friday.

The dollar lost ground to the Japanese yen, trading at 98.27 yen from 98.89 yen.

The euro also dropped to 130.30 yen from 131.35 yen.

The ISM’s index for the US services sector surged to 56 per cent in July, 3.8 points higher than the level in June and above the 53.2 average forecast by analysts.

The report showed strong improvement in business activity and new orders and helped reverse the dollar’s negative momentum from Friday’s jobs report, when the greenback fell against major currencies after July job gains lagged expectations.

Monday’s ISM data included a disappointing figure on services sector jobs growth.

But “much of the impact of its news was diminished as markets had already absorbed the less-than-stellar labor data” from Friday, said Boris Schlossberg, managing director at BK Asset Management.

“Currency markets were generally quiet, taking their cue from the placid equity bourses which were off less than 25 basis points in morning trade,” Schlossberg added.

Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange, said Friday’s jobs report was not weak enough to kill discussion of scaling back the US Federal Reserve’s bond-buying program.

“While the dollar may struggle to push meaningfully higher, its downside should also remain limited by the view that the Fed will lead other major central banks in policy normalisation,” Esiner said.

Among other major currencies, the pound rose to $1.5358 on Monday from $1.5284 on Friday.

The dollar fell to 0.9277 Swiss franc from 0.9290.