Investing.com - The dollar was higher against a basket of other major currencies on Thursday, as the previous session's U.S. service sector data continued to support the greenback and investors eyed upcoming policy statements from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
The dollar remained supported after data on Wednesday showed that U.S. service sector activity grew at a faster rate than expected in February, boosting expectations for higher interest rates.
Another report showed that the U.S. private sector added 212,000 jobs in February, falling short of expectations for an increase of 220,000.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.23% to 96.20.
EUR/USD slipped 0.27% to 1.1048.
ECB President Mario Draghi was expected to shed more light on how the bank will implement its large scale quantitative easing program later on Thursday, following the bank’s policy meeting.
Earlier Thursday, data showed that German factory orders fell 3.9% in January, compared to expectations for a 1.0% decline. December's figure was revised to a 4.4% rise from a previously estimated 4.2% gain.
The dollar was higher against the yen and the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY up 0.41% to 120.18 and with USD/CHF climbing 0.54% to 0.9686.
In other trade, sterling edged lower, with GBP/USD easing 0.08% to 1.5255.
Industry data earlier showed that U.K. house prices declined by 0.3% last month, worse than expectations for a 0.2% drop. U.K. house prices increased 1.9% in January, downwardly revised from a previously reported gain of 2.0%.
U.K. house prices in the three months to February were 8.3% higher than in the same three months a year earlier, below forecasts for a gain of 8.5% gain and down from an increase of 8.5% in January.
The Australian and New Zealand were lower, with AUD/USD slipping 0.10% to 0.7810 and NZD/USD dropping 0.91% to 0.7510.
In a report on Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that retail sales rose 0.4% in January, in line with expectations, after a 0.2% uptick the previous month.
A separate report showed that Australia's trade deficit widened to A$0.98 billion in January from A$0.50 billion in December, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of A$0.44 billion.
Analysts had expected the trade deficit to widen to A$0.95 billion in January.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD edged down 0.12% to 1.2415.