* EU approves Greek plan
* U.S. ADP data shows fewer-than-expected job losses
* Norwegian central bank leaves benchmark rate unchanged
(Recasts, updates prices, adds comment)
NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The euro was little changed against the dollar on Wednesday as the New York session opened after the European Commission backed a Greek deficit-cutting plan as expected, easing some investor worries over fiscal problems in the euro zone.
The EU's endorsement of Greece's plan to reduce its budget
deficit to below 3 percent of GDP by 2012 [ID:nLDE6121AH]
helped narrow the spread between Greek and German government
bond yields.
Traders looking to the ADP private-sector employment report for clues to Friday's all-important U.S. jobs report for January, which will be issued by the government, were bolstered after the ADP report showed fewer-than-expected job losses. For the data, click on [ID:nWEN9595].
"The euro looks to be benefiting, or at least benefited overnight from a moderation in concerns about the sovereign credit risk," said Omer Esiner, senior market analyst at Travelex Global Business Payments in Washington. "We saw Greek and German bond spread narrow, which kind of signaled a slight easing of concerns regarding Greece's fiscal problems."
In early New York trade, the European currency was little
changed at $1.3957
Against the yen, the euro gained 0.4 percent
Analysts said the EU's approval would ease near-term concerns and underpin the euro, though Greece's problems were far from over.
"Ultimately it will prove a slow and hard slog for the Greek government to regain the markets' trust requiring the government to successfully meet its budget deficit-cutting targets," said Lee Hardman, currency strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
Concerns remained about other smaller debt-laden euro zone countries such as Portugal and Spain, which could hinder the single European currency.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said those countries shared some of Greece's problems. [ID:nBRU010631]
A monthly Reuters poll showed respondents expected the euro to stand at $1.40 in one month's time. For more results see [ID:nLDE6120B9].
DOLLAR FALLS
The dollar index <.DXY> rose 0.1 percent to 79.092, not far from a six-month high of 79.534 struck earlier this week. Traders said an Asian sovereign account was a large seller of the greenback in European trade.
The U.S. currency tumbled as low as 90.09 yen but was last
up 0.4 percent at 90.72 yen
"Overall, the market is taking ADP and Challenger reports as positive, especially ahead of the non-farm payrolls report on Friday," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT. "As a result, we are seeing the dollar outperform against many currencies today."
Norges Bank, the Norwegian central bank, kept its benchmark rate at 1.75 percent, an outcome that had been expected after a rate increase last December.
The euro was last up 0.2 percent against the Norwegian
crown at 8.1616 crowns
Traders said the market has largely priced in further rate rises.
Ahead of the rate decision, Norway's central bank said it would tighten guidelines for types of collateral commercial banks can use for loans with the central bank. [ID:nOSN004229]
Central bank policy decisions for the euro zone and the UK were scheduled for Thursday, with the Bank of England expected to halt its quantitative easing programme. (Reporting by Nick Olivari, additional reporting by Wanfeng Zhou and Vivianne Rodrigues in New York and Tamawa Desai in London, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)