Investing.com - The dollar was mixed against a basket of other major currencies on Friday, as markets were jittery ahead of a highly anticipated report on U.S. employment due later in the trading session.
Investors were eyeing data on U.S. nonfarm payrolls due later in the day for further indications on the strength of the job market.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending May 30 declined by 8,000 to 276,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 284,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 5,000 to 279,000 last week.
The report came a day after data showed that the U.S. private sector added 201,000 jobs last month, slightly ahead of expectations for 200,000.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 95.53.
EUR/USD was up 0.18% to 1.1258 after official data showed that German factory orders increased by 1.4% in April, beating expectations for a 0.5% gain.
The change in factory orders for March was revised to a 1.1% rise from a previously estimated 0.9% uptick.
But investors remained cautious after Greece on Thursday told the International Monetary Fund it would delay a debt payment of about $339 million due Friday, submitting a request to bundle payments totaling about $1.7 billion due this month into one payment.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has rejected proposals by creditors to help unlock more aid to help with repayments. Following late night talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "we’re still far from reaching a conclusion."
The pound and the yen were lower, with GBP/USD down 0.34% to 1.5314 and with USD/JPY rising 0.32% to 124.76.
Elsewhere, USD/CHF eased 0.09% to trade at 0.9327. Data earlier showed that Swiss foreign currency reserves fell to 517 billion Swiss francs in May from a revised total of 522.2 billion Swiss francs the previous month.
The Australian dollar was higher, with AUD/USD up 0.22% to 0.7701, while NZD/USD held steady at 0.7134.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD edged up 0.11% to trade at 1.2517.