Investing.com - The euro moved higher against the dollar and the yen on Thursday as investors positioned ahead of Friday’s U.S. employment report, after data indicating that the recovery in the U.S. labor market remains solid.
EUR/USD was up 1.06% to 1.0876, the highest since March 27.
Investors were looking ahead to Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for March, as markets wound down ahead of a long Easter holiday weekend.
Earlier Thursday, the Labor Department reported that the number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 268,000 last week. Economists had forecast a much smaller drop of 3,000.
The robust data indicated that the recovery in the labor market is solid, despite recent economic reports pointing to a slowdown at the start of the year.
At the same time, the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit narrowed 16.9% to $35.4 billion in February, the smallest since October 2009. Economists had forecast a deficit of $41.2 billion.
In a separate report, the Commerce Department said factory orders unexpectedly rose 0.2% in February, snapping six straight months of declines.
Investors were hoping that Friday’s U.S. employment report for March would provide more clarity on the future path of monetary policy after recent disappointing economic reports fuelled concerns that the Federal Reserve could push back an expected interest rate hike to September from midyear.
The euro was also higher against the yen, with EUR/JPY up 1.03% to 130.2.
The dollar was little changed against the yen, with USD/JPY at 119.76, holding above session lows of 119.45.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.73% to 97.81.