Investing.com - The dollar trimmed gains against the other major currencies on Thursday, after the release of downbeat U.S. data and as investors turned their attention to Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report.
The U.S. Census Bureau said factory orders decreased by 1.5% in June, better than forecasts for a decline of 1.8%. Factory orders fell 1.2% in May, in a revision from the initial read of a 1.0%.
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.
The dollar has come under pressure amid diminished expectations for another rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year after last week’s surprisingly weak data on U.S. second quarter growth.
GBP/USD tumbled 1.39% to a one-week low of 1.3139.
Earlier Thursday, 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 U.K. referendum 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 0.16% to trade at 101.09, off Tuesday’s three-week low of 100.65.
The euro and the Swiss franc held steady, with EUR/USD at 1.1140 and with USD/CHF at 0.9732.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.33% at 0.7613 and with NZD/USD rising 0.31% to 0.7181.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD edged down 0.16% to 1.3045.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.17% at 95.65, after rising to highs of 95.87 earlier in the day.