Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was mixed against its major counterparts in Asian trade Friday, as better than expected U.S. labor data and vows to boost liquidity levels in European financial institutions tussled for influence on the greenback.
In mid-day Asian trade, the greenback was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD losing 0.10% to hit 1.3424.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said Thursday the ECB would begin a two-fold program to ease concerns in financial markets over Europe’s sovereign debt threats.
Trichet said the ECB would begin buying USD53 billion in covered bonds and institute longer term refinancing operations to commercials banks in the euro-zone beginning this month. The ECB voted to maintain interest rates unchanged at 1.5%.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of Americans filing for initial jobless benefits for the week ending September 30 rose by 6,000, to a seasonally adjusted 401,000.
Market expectations were for jobless claims to rise to 411,000 after hitting 395,000 the previous week.
Meanwhile, the greenback was lower against the British pound, with GBP/USD adding 0.10% to hit 1.5461.
The dollar was lower against both the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY down 0.05% to hit 76.68, and USD/CHF lower by 0.06% to hit 0.9200.
The greenback was mixed against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD up 0.03% to hit 1.0375, AUD/USD up by 0.19% to hit 0.9764, and NZD/USD rising 0.04% to hit 0.7722.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.08% at 79.07.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was scheduled to released its latest unemployment figures later Friday.