Investing.com - The dollar edged higher against the other majors currencies on Thursday, as investors were still digesting Wednesday’s third U.S. presidential debate and were eyeing a string of U.S. data to be released later in the day.
The greenback regained some strength ahead of reports on U.S. manufacturing activity, jobless claims and existing home sales, due later in the day.
Market participants were eyeing the data for further indications on the strength of the economy after recent reports painted a mixed picture.
The dollar also benefited from the fact that several polls of debate watchers, including a CNN/ORC poll, stated that Hillary Clinton won the final presidential debate on Wednesday against rival Donald Trump.
EUR/USD held steady at 1.0972, off the three-month low off 1.0953 hit overnight.
Sentiment on the euro remained fragile ahead of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting later Thursday.
The ECB was expected to leave its monetary policy unchanged but market participants would be closely watching ECB President Mario Draghi’s press conference, scheduled shortly after the policy statement, for clues on the central bank’s next policy moves.
GBP/USD slid 0.26% to 1.2318, after the U.K. Office for National Statistics said retail sales were flat in September, after a 0.2% decline the previous month and compared to expectations for a 0.4% rise.
Year-on-year, retail sales increased 4.1% last month, disappointing expectations for a 4.8% rise.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales and fuel, were als flat in September, confounding expectations for an increase of 0.4%.
USD/JPY edged up 0.17% to 103.46, while USD/CHF held steady at 0.9892.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were weaker, with AUD/USD down 0.76% at 0.7664 and with NZD/USD slipping 0.12% to 0.7223.
Earlier Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said the number of employed people declined by 9,800 in September, disappointing expectations for an increase of 15,000.
Australia’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.6% last month, compared to expectations for an uptick to 5.7%.
In addition, the National Australia Bank said its business confidence index rose to 5 in the third quarter from 3 in the second quarter, whose figure was revised from an initial reading of 2.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD gained 0.43% to trade at 1.3170, off Wednesday’s one-month trough of 1.3001.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.09% at 97.96, not far from Monday’s seven-month high of 98.15.