* Euro/dollar touches one-year high,
* Yen bounces after BOJ's Shirakawa comments
* U.S. data pushed dollar index down (Adds comment, detail, updates prices)
By Nick Olivari
NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The dollar was last broadly lower in a seesaw session on Thursday, earlier hitting a one-year low against the euro as expectations of economic recovery encouraged investors to look for higher-yielding assets.
A report on Thursday showing factory activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region rose in September to the highest level since June 2007, added to risk appetite.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its business activity index was at 14.1 in September versus 4.2 in August. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 8.0.
"The trend of dollar-selling is getting a little bit tired at this point," said Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist, Wells Fargo in New York. "But the market is still optimistic on the recovery so it's starting to buy commodity currencies more against the yen rather than against the dollar. We're moving towards the yen just because the market is already very short dollars."
Earlier the euro rose to its highest since mid-September last year against the dollar and in New York was 0.2 percent higher at $1.4738.
The single currency showed limited reaction to figures showing a higher-than-expected trade surplus in the euro zone for July, due to a recovery in exports.
The dollar index, which hit a one-year low of 76.010 earlier in the session, last traded at 76.173, down 0.1 percent from the prior New York close.
The dollar index has been down 9 out of last 10 days, and is off 2.6 percent this month to date, its worst monthly performance since May.
Earlier the U.S. Labor department reported that initial state jobless benefit claims fell slightly in the latest week and separate data showed U.S. housing starts and building permits in August rose to their highest level since November.
BOJ UPGRADE
The yen earlier got a boost after Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said a stronger yen would push down prices in the near term but might support the economy in the longer run.
Speaking after the BOJ held interest rates at 0.1 percent while upgrading its economic assessment, he added he would carefully monitor the impact of currency moves and that rates should be formed in a stable manner in the market.
The dollar fell as low as around 90.50 yen after his comments, before climbing to 91.27 yen, to trade 0.4 percent higher on the day.
The Swiss franc hit its highest in more than one year around 1.0281. The dollar later traded 0.1 percent lower at 1.0302.
The Swiss National Bank kept up on Thursday its drastic measures to boost the economy and fend off deflation, renewing its policy of ultra-low interest rates, bond purchases and interventions to stop the Swiss franc rising.
(Additional reporting by Wanfeng Zhou in New York and Tamawa Desai in London) (Reporting by Nick Olivari; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)