Investing.com - The U.S. dollar was unchanged on Friday in Asia as markets await the upcoming non-farm payroll and job data for April.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was unchanged at 97.586 by 11:39 PM ET (03:39 GMT).
The Commerce Department said factory goods orders increased 1.9% in March year on year, beating economists' expectations for a 1% rise.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial jobless claims remained unchanged at 230,000, missing expectations for a decline of 10,000.
An ongoing rise in U.S. government bond yields was cited as supportive for the dollar earlier in the day after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell dented investor hopes for a rate cut a day earlier.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at his regular press conference that Fed officials “don’t see a strong case for moving in either direction,” indicating that it believes the weakness of inflation and private demand in the first quarter will be temporary.
Meanwhile, the AUD/USD pair and the NZD/USD pair both inched up 0.1%. The Reserve Bank of Australia will hold a policy meeting on May 7, while the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will gather a day after. Some analysts believe the two central banks might cut rates following recently below-forecast inflation reports.
The GBP/USD pair was also trading near flat after the Bank of England maintained the benchmark rate at 0.75%. The central bank’s governor Mark Carney said that there could be a number of rate hikes from the bank, if Brexit is resolved and growth and inflation point higher.