Investing.com - The dollar continued to hover at one-week highs against the other major currencies in subdued trade on Wednesday, despite the release of weak U.S. factory orders data, as news of a fresh North Korean missile test continued to dominate investors’ attention.
The U.S. Census Bureau said factory orders decreased by 0.8% in May, compared to expectations for a decline of 0.5%. Factory orders dropped 0.3% in February, down from an initially 0.2% fall.
The greenback found support after upbeat U.S. manufacturing data on Monday reinforced expectations for another rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year.
USD/JPY was little changed at 113.20, after rising to a seven-week high of 113.69 earlier in the session.
The yen erased gains posted after North Korea said it had fired an “unidentified ballistic missile” which landed in the Sea of Japan. Tokyo strongly protested what it called a clear violation of UN resolutions.
The test came just days before leaders from the Group of 20 nations are due to discuss steps to curtail North Korea’s weapons programs.
EUR/USD slipped 0.13% to a one-week low of 1.1334 after European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said the governing council has not discussed policy changes.
The single currency was boosted last week, rising to 14-month highs against the dollar after hawkish comments by ECB President Mario Draghi fuelled expectations that it is moving closer to scaling back its stimulus program.
Elsewhere, GBP/USD was little changed at a one-week trough of 1.2924, while USD/CHF eases up 0.09% to trade at 0.9664.
Earlier Wednesday, research group Markit said its U.K. services purchasing managers’ index decreased to 53.4 last month from a reading of 53.8 in May. Analysts had expected the index to drop to only 53.5.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars remained weaker, with AUD/USD down 0.32% at 0.7579 and with NZD/USD sliding 0.37% to 0.7261.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD gained 0.43% to trade at 1.2995, just off the previous session’s 10-month low of 1.2913.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.15% at a one-week high of 96.13.