On Thursday the dollar continued its decline, pressing a benchmark index to the lowest level since the beginning of the year, as recent soft U.S. data spur speculation the Fed will delay the rate hike.
The ICE dollar index dipped 0.2% to 93.39, setting it on track for a 1.4% weekly decline.
Wednesday marked the worst day in a week for the greenback as several downbeat reports on the U.S. economy increasingly ruled out calls for a June rate hike. A rate hike is usually seen as boosting a country’s currency, and the dollar had risen sharply earlier in the year on hopes a rate rise was imminent.
Data awaited later in the trading day on Thursday could further drive the rate-rise speculation and press the greenback lower, with weekly jobless claims estimate to indicate a rise in Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week.
In the meantime, the euro climbed to $1.1405 from $1.1354 late Wednesday in New York.
The common currency dropped from its intraday high of $1.1435 after Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said his country’s repayments to the European Central Bank should be pushed back to “the distant future”.
However, some analysts, including Richard Perry, market analyst at Hantec Markets, said the euro’s climb came on the back of the weaker dollar, rather than on any European-specific factors.
The dollar slid against the yen to ¥119.18, from ¥119.16 on Wednesday.
The pound rose to $1.5764 from $1.5745.
Russia's ruble dropped after the Bank of Russia said it would start buying up to $200 million each day to fill up its foreign-currency reserves.
