The dollar held steady across the board today as the market readied itself for a US jobs report later in the session which is likely to set the tone for expectations of US interest rate rises.
If the August jobs report due at 1:30 p.m. Irish times is weak it will cast doubt on whether the US Federal Reserve will go ahead with a widely expected rate rise later this month, analysts said.
Non-farm payrolls have failed to live up to market expectations for the past two months but analysts are expecting 150,000 jobs to have been created in August, compared with just 32,000 in July.
"The view seems to be that the risk is towards a higher than consensus number and it would have to be a pretty firm outcome to give the dollar a good boost," said Mr Mitul Kotecha, head of global foreign exchange research at Calyon in London.
"It could not only have a big impact on interest rate expectations, which in turn will impact the dollar, but it also would have a significant impact on the view of the US economy as whole."
By 8:45 a.m. the dollar was trading unchanged on the day at $1.2168 per euro, in the middle of the week's range.
Against the yen it was slightly firmer at 109.58 yen, a yen up from a 1-1/2 month low set earlier in the week.