Investing.com - The dollar eased against a basket of major currencies on Thursday, pulling back from the eight-week highs reached in the previous session as the euro firmed up.
EUR/USD rose 0.18% to 1.3615, recovering from the three month trough of 1.3587 struck on Wednesday.
The euro’s gains were held in check amid mounting expectations that the European Central Bank will ease monetary policy at its upcoming meeting next week, in order to safeguard the fragile recovery in the euro area.
The dollar was lower against the yen, with USD/JPY losing 0.32% to trade at 101.51. The greenback softened against the yen after U.S. Treasury yields fell to an almost one-year low on Wednesday.
Investors were looking ahead to updated first quarter growth figures from the U.S. later in the trading day, after the preliminary estimate showed that the economy grew just 0.1% in the first three months of the year.
Elsewhere, USD/CHF was down 0.21% to 0.8964.
The pound was steady close to six-week lows, with GBP/USD at 1.6720. Sterling posted its largest one-day decline against the dollar in four months on Wednesday as concerns that the U.K. housing market could be losing some momentum tempered expectations for a rate hike by the Bank of England later this year.
Sterling remained weaker even after BoE monetary policy committee member Martin Weale said Wednesday that a rise in the cost of borrowing should happen "sooner rather than later".
AUD/USD rallied 0.73% to 0.9302 after data on Thursday showed that private capital expenditure in Australia dropped in the first quarter as investment in mining fell, but indicated that the investment outlook for manufacturing and other industries over this year and next was brighter.
NZD/USD edged up 0.10% to 0.8501, while USD/CAD slid 0.12% to 1.0862.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, slid 0.18% to 0.80.47, down from an eight week high of 80.63 on Wednesday.