Investing.com - The dollar hovered near three-month lows against a basket of other major currencies on Thursday, as recent downbeat U.S. economic reports continued to fuel uncertainty over the strength of the recovery and markets eyed upcoming U.S. jobless claims data.
The dollar remained under pressure after payroll processing firm ADP said on Wednesday that U.S. non-farm private employment rose by 169,000 last month, below expectations for an increase of 200,000.
Investors were now looking ahead to Friday's employment report for further indications on the health of the U.S. job market.
Recent economic reports have indicated that the economy has slowed since the start of the year prompting many investors to push back expectations on the timing of an initial rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.16% to 94.05, nt far from Wednesday's three-month low of 93.96.
EUR/USD rose 0.19% to two-and-a-half month highs of 1.1372.
The single currency found some support after Greece made a small interest payment to the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday, although European lenders crushed hopes for a cash-for-reforms deal before a bigger installment Athens is expected to pay next week.
Earlier Thursday, official data showed that German factory orders rose 0.9% in March, disappointing expectations for an increase of 1.5%, after a 0.9% fall the previous month.
The pound was fractionally lower, with GBP/USD easing 0.08% to 1.5235 as investors remained cautious amid Thursday's U.K. elections which were widely expected to result in a hung parliament and an unstable coalition government.
Elsewhere, the dollar was lower against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY slipping 0.23% to 119.17 and with USD/CHF declining 0.93% to 0.9074.
The Swiss National Bank reported on Thursday that its foreign currency reserves slipped to 521.9 billion Swiss francs last month from 522.4 billion Swiss francs in March, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 522.3 billion Swiss francs.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were lower, with AUD/USD down 0.20% to 0.7954 and NZD/USD shedding 0.28% to 0.7475.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier said that the number of employed people declined by 2,900 in April, compared to expectations for an increase of 5,000. The change in the number of employed people in March was revised to a 48,200 gain from a previously estimated 37,700 rise.
The report also showed that Australia's unemployment rate rose to 6.2% last month from 6.1% in March, in line with expectations.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD added 0.12% to trade at 1.2060.