NEW YORK, March 10: The dollar traded mainly higher on Friday as strong US job and trade data reduced the likelihood of the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates any time soon.

The euro eased to $1.3112 at 2200 GMT, from $1.3131 late in New York on Thursday.

The dollar climbed to 118.29 yen, from 117.14 yen late on Thursday.

Data released Friday showed the US economy added 97,000 jobs in February.

Though the headline figure was more or less in line with expectations, upward revisions to past data and an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate caused the market to see the figures in a positive light.

This was a strong report through and through -- upward revisions, strong earnings growth, temporary weather effects and an unemployment rate near the cycle low, said Jeoff Hall at Thomson IFR Markets.

The results should silence calls for an immediate change in the Fed's policy bias, let alone calls for an ease at the March, May or perhaps even the June meeting, he said.

Also boosting the dollar meanwhile were further figures showing a drop in the US trade deficit in January.

The strong jobs figures also helped to boost the outlook for global growth, allowing risk appetite to build and the so-called “carry trade” to resume.

Carry trades occur when money is borrowed in countries with low interest rates, such as Japan, to be invested in higher-yielding assets elsewhere and are seen as risky transactions.

Typically they benefit high-yielding currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars to the detriment of low-yielders such as the yen and the Swiss franc.

Michael Woolfolk at Bank of New York said fears about the yen and the Japanese economy appear to have subsided.

The second consecutive day of gains in the Nikkei has calmed concerns over further unwinding of the yen carry trade, he said.

While we are not entirely out of the woods just yet with at least one more week of Japanese 'window dressing' to go ahead of fiscal year-end, we have succeeded in trading back to levels seen a week ago.

Continued market stability next week could dispel lingering fears and move players from the sideline back into the carry trade, he said.

If there are no more shocks, he said the carry trade will for all intents and purposes be alive and well, with the 120 level in dollar-yen coming quickly into the sites of traders. Over the past week, a surge in risk aversion caused equity markets to slump and carry trades to unwind, propelling the yen to three-month highs against the dollar.

In late New York trade, the dollar stood at 1.2347 Swiss francs from 1.2275 Thursday.

The pound was being traded at $1.9318 from 1.9282 late on Thursday.—AFP