By Saumya Vaishampayan
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. dollar swung to a loss against most rivals Friday after the U.S. added many fewer jobs in December than expected. The U.S. economy created just 74,000 jobs last month, the smallest increase since the beginning of 2011, while the unemployment rate dropped to 6.7% from 7.0%. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a rise of 193,000 jobs and no change in the jobless rate. The ICE dollar index DXY -0.18% , a gauge of the greenback's strength against major rivals, tumbled to 80.714 after the data from 80.978 late Thursday. The dollar index had previously been up from prior-day levels. The dollar USDJPY -0.25% slumped to ¥104.35 after the data, giving up levels above ¥105 earlier in the morning. The dollar traded at ¥104.79 late Thursday.
