Investing.com - The dollar edged lower against other major currencies on Friday, as investors remained cautious following Thursday’s mixed U.S. data and ahead of an upcoming employment report.
EUR/USD edged up 0.10% to 1.1141.
Sentiment on the greenback remained vulnerable after the U.S. Census Bureau said on Thursday that factory orders decreased by 1.5% in June, better than forecasts for a decline of 1.8%.
The report came after the Labor Department said initial jobless claims increased by 3,000 to 269,000 from the previous week’s total of 266,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to decline by 1,000 to 265,000 last week.
Market participants were now looking ahead to the highly-anticipated U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, due later Friday, for further indications on the strength of the job market.
The dollar has come under pressure amid diminished expectations for another rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year after last week’s surprisingly weak data on U.S. second quarter growth.
GBP/USD added 0.18% to 1.3129, still close to the previous session’s one-week low of 1.3099.
The pound recovered from losses posted after the Bank of England cut interest rates to a record-low 0.25% in a bid to buffer the economy from a downturn following the Brexit vote.
The central bank also boosted its quantitative easing program by £60 billion and slashed its growth forecast for next year. It now expects growth of just 0.8% in 2017, down from 2.3% in its May forecasts.
Almost all economists had expected the BoE to cut rates and many also expected it to resume its multi-billion-pound program of government bond purchases.
USD/JPY slipped 0.19% to trade at 101.04, not far from Tuesday’s three-week low of 100.65.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.13% at 95.63.