Investing.com - The dollar backed off three-and-a-half week highs against a basket of other major currencies on Thursday, as markets awaited preliminary data on U.S. third quarter growth later in the trading day.
The greenback strengthened against the other major currencies on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve ended its quantitative easing stimulus program, saying it was confident the U.S. economic recovery would continue.
The U.S. central bank said that although the jobs market is strengthening, there is still room for improvement, but not “significant improvement,” as it has said previously, in the labor market participation rate.
Markets were looking ahead to preliminary data on third quarter U.S. growth later in the day, with the consensus forecast for annual growth of 3.0%, down from the weather-related rebound of 4.6% in the second quarter.
The U.S. was also to release a report on initial jobless claims, after weekly jobless claims fell to a 14 year low earlier this month.
EUR/USD was down 0.33% to 1.2590, off overnight lows of 1.2555.
The single currency found some support after data showed that Spain’s economy grew in the third quarter and another report showed an unexpected decline in the number of people unemployed in Germany this month.
Spain’s gross domestic product grew 0.5% in the three months September, and expanded 1.6% on a year-over-year basis, both in line with forecasts.
A separate report showed that the annual rate of inflation in Spain remained below zero this month, falling 0.1% after a 0.2% decline in September.
Germany was to release preliminary data on consumer prices later Thursday.
USD/JPY was up 0.11% to 109.01, not far from highs of 109.31.
The dollar was steady against the pound, with GBP/USD at 1.6002 and remained higher against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF up 0.32% to 0.9577.
NZD/USD was steady near one month lows at 0.7800.
The kiwi fell sharply in the previous session after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left rates unchanged at 3.5% and said “a period of assessment remains appropriate before considering further policy adjustment."
The bank had said previously that it expected some further monetary tightening would be necessary.
Elsewhere, AUD/USD edged down to 0.8790, while USD/CAD almost flat at 1.1191.
The US dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.27% to 86.33, not far from three-and-a-half week peaks of 86.39.