Investing.com - The dollar slipped lower against the other major currencies on Friday, after Thursday’s mixed U.S. data and as investors remained cautious ahead of the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report due later in the day.
EUR/USD edged up 0.16% to 1.1147.
Sentiment on the greenback remained vulnerable after the U.S. Census Bureau said on Thursday that factory orders decreased by 1.5% in June, better than forecasts for a decline of 1.8%.
The report came after the Labor Department said initial jobless claims increased by 3,000 to 269,000 from the previous week’s total of 266,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to decline by 1,000 to 265,000 last week.
Market participants were now looking ahead to the highly-anticipated U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, due later Friday, for further indications on the strength of the job market.
Earlier Friday, data showed that German factory orders fell 0.4% in June, compared to expectations for a 0.6% rise and after an uptick of 0.1% in May.
GBP/USD rose 0.20% to 1.3134, still close to the previous session’s one-week low of 1.3099.
The pound recovered from losses posted after the Bank of England cut interest rates to a record-low 0.25% in a bid to buffer the economy from a downturn following the Brexit vote.
The central bank also boosted its quantitative easing program by £60 billion and slashed its growth forecast for next year. It now expects growth of just 0.8% in 2017, down from 2.3% in its May forecasts.
Almost all economists had expected the BoE to cut rates and many also expected it to resume its multi-billion-pound program of government bond purchases.
USD/JPY slipped 0.28% to trade at 101.09, not far from Tuesday’s three-week low of 100.65, while USD/CHF held steady at 0.9735.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.43% at 0.7659 and with NZD/USD climbing 0.61% to 0.7217.
In its monthly policy statement, the Reserve Bank of Australia said on Friday that core inflation was likely to remain below target until 2018.
The comments came after the central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate from 1.75% to a new record-low of 1.50% on Tueasday, in line with expectations.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD was little changed at 1.3013.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.20% at 95.56.