Investing.com - The U.S. dollar extended losses against its major counterparts in Asian trade Friday, as global investors digested a report showing a two-year low in U.S. manufacturing and with hopes for improvement in jobless data due for release later in the day.
In mid-day Asian trade, the greenback was lower against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.06% to hit 1.4268.
The U.S. Institute of Supply Management reported earlier Thursday, that its index of purchasing managers fell to 50.6 in the month of August from 50.9 the month before. That was better than analyst’s forecasts of a retreat to 48.5 for the month but still represented a contraction in activity.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor released data for the week ending August 26, showing that the number of Americans filing for initial job benefits dropped by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 409,000.
The figure was in line with market expectations but still only marginally above the 400,000 break even point generally found during periods of U.S. labor expansion.
Wall Street shares snapped a five day winning streak following release of the data, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.03%, the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 1.3%, and the S&P 500 was lower by 1.19%.
Meanwhile, the greenback was down against the British pound, with GBP/USD up by 0.05% to hit 1.6186.
The dollar was lower against both the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc with USD/JPY dropping 0.07% to hit 76.88, and USD/CHF down by 0.15% to hit 0.7944.
The greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts with USD/CAD up 0.03% to hit 0.9773, AUD/USD lower by 0.20% to hit 1.0698, and NZD/USD falling 0.10% to hit 0.8498.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.06% at 74.61.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was due to release data on U.S. non-farm payrolls as well as the most recent unemployment numbers, later Friday.