FOREX-US dollar slide slows still seen vulnerable

* U.S. dollar slide slows

* U.S. weekly jobless claims fall

* BoE holds quantitative easing, rates steady

(Updates prices, adds details)

By Vivianne Rodrigues

NEW YORK, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar steadied on Thursday after sliding to its lowest in almost a year against major currencies this week, but is seen vulnerable to further selling.

The dollar initially fell versus the euro after a better-than-expected reading on U.S. weekly jobless claims but recovered a little groun das U.S. and European stocks failed to extend earlier gains.

The U.S. currency has suffered recently as investors bet on an economic recovery through commodity-linked and higher-yielding currencies, which rallied earlier this week.

"Some caution has returned to the foreign exchange markets today, and the dollar is mixed," said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy at Wells Fargo Bank in New York. Still, Bennenbroek warned that Thursday's rebound in the U.S. currency may be short-lived.

"Dollar sentiment is still fragile, and the path of least resistance for the dollar is still clearly to the downside in the near term," he said.

In midday trading in New York, the euro was little changed at $1.4564 . The euro zone single currency rose above $1.46 for the first time in 2009 following a government report that showed the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to 550,000, more than expected. For details, see [ID::nN10384112].

The euro touched $1.4606, its highest since December 2008, according to Reuters data.

"The jobless claims data looks like a pretty healthy improvement from the previous week," said Omer Esiner, a senior market analyst at Travelex Global Business Payments in Washington.

In another release, the U.S. trade deficit for July widened the most in more than 10 years. The trade gap expanded 16.3 percent in July to $32.0 billion, the biggest month-to-month increase since February 1999. [ID:nN09221872]

The dollar index <.DXY>, which tracks its performance against a basket of six other major currencies, was little changed, down 0.1 percent at 76.999. The index touched 76.775 earlier today, its lowest level in almost a year.

Against the yen, the dollar was down 0.2 percent at 91.78 yen , after hitting a seven-month low of 91.45 yen earlier, according to Reuters data.

CENTRAL BANKS

Investors booked some gains in the Australian and New Zealand dollars, driving them down from this week's one-year highs while the euro briefly surged against the Swiss franc, with traders citing talk that the Swiss National Bank has checked exchange rates on the currency pair.

The euro rose as high as 1.5196 francs earlier but it was last at 1.5144, nearly flat on the day.

The New Zealand dollar was little changed at $0.6967, falling from a one-year high touched on Wednesday's after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand governor said the currency was overvalued. [ID:nWLF004365]

Earlier the RBNZ left rates on hold at a record low of 2.5 percent as expected but indicated it was less inclined to cut rates again. [ID:nWEL20198]

The Australian dollar fell after data showed Australia's employment dropped by more than double a Reuters forecast, although the jobless rate held steady. The Aussie dropped 0.6 percent to $0.8580 .

Sterling rose after the Bank of England left monetary policy unchanged as expected [ID:nTAR005447] [ID:nLAC003435], countering speculation of further easing. The pound hit multi-week highs at $1.6642 , while it touched the day's high versus the euro at 87.30 pence .

(Additional reporting by Wanfeng Zhou in New York)