Investing.com - The dollar was hovering close to 12-year highs against the other major currencies on Thursday, as investors awaited the European Central Bank's policy statement due later in the day, as well as the weekly U.S. report on jobless claims.
EUR/USD was steady at 1.1617. Sentiment on the single currency remained vulnerable as investors waited to see if the ECB would embark on an outright quantitative easing program on Thursday.
Uncertainty over the outcome of Greek elections, due to be held on Sunday, with anti-bailout party Syriza leading in the polls also weighed.
Earlier Thursday, official data showed that Spain's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 23.7% in the fourth quarter, confounding expectations for a slip to 23.6%.
The pound edged slightly higher against the dollar, with GBP/USD adding 0.19% to 1.5170.
The Confederation of British Industry reported on Thursday that its index of industrial orders expectations fell to 4 this month from a reading of 5 in December. Analysts had expected the index to remain unchanged in January.
Separately, the Office for National Statistics said that U.K. public sector net borrowing rose to by £12.47 billion last month from a revised £11.73 billion in November, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated £13.41 billion.
Analysts had expected public sector net borrowing to decline to £9.7 billion in December.
Elsewhere, USD/JPY slipped 0.18% to 117.74, while USD/CHF shed 0.25% to 0.8578.
The commodity-linked currencies were broadly stronger. AUD/USD rose 0.26% to 0.8107 and NZD/USD edged up 0.11% to 0.7560, easing off two-and-a-half year lows of 0.7564 hit earlier in the session.
The Melbourne Institute earlier reported that its inflation expectations for the next 12 months ticked down to 3.2% in December from 3.4% in November.
A separate report showed that Australia's new home sales rose 2.2% in November, after an increase of 3.0% the previous month.
USD/CAD edged down 0.13% to 1.2325, pulling away from Wednesday's more than five-and-a-half year highs of 1.2395.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.18% to 92.84, still close to last week's 12-year peak of 93.56.