The dollar on Friday gained against the euro in late New York trading, as optimism about U.S. economy bolstered by job reports lifted the greenback, and debt concerns pressured the euro.
The euro fell below the important support level of 1.30 dollars, hitting a near four-month low of 1.2934 dollars.
The Labor Department reported on Friday an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent for December, its lowest level in 19 months. This helped offset the disappointment over the worse-than-expected jobs increase last month. Investors remained optimistic about the largest economy's recovery future, which boosted dollar demand.
Meanwhile the debt crisis concerns were not eased and the euro has been under selling pressure.
The dollar index, which tracks the dollar performance against a basket of currencies, added 0.305, or 0.38 percent to 81.095.
In the late trading session on Friday, the dollar rose to 0. 9658 from 0.9647 against Swiss francs, but edged down to 83.03 from 83.28 against Japan yen and fell to 0.9924 Canadian dollars from 0.9962. And the British pound rose to 1.5548 dollars from 1. 5474.
