The euro edged up against the dollar on Thursday in Asia as recent weak U.S. economic indicators prompted investors to speculate that the Federal Reserve may end up taking additional easing measures in the months ahead. U.S. data released Wednesday by the Institute for Supply Management showed its manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 in April, below the 57.0 expected.
Separately, private-sector jobs in the U.S. rose by just 38,000 last month, according to a national employment report published by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers. The consensus forecast was for a 190,000 gain. The result bodes ill for Friday's much-anticipated non-farm payrolls data. Traders said market participants are increasingly pessimistic about the U.S. outlook as some of them even started to speculate that the Fed may go ahead with further quantitative easing measures in the months ahead. If the U.S. data to be released over the coming days, such as Friday's jobs data, turn out to be weaker than expected, "speculation over a QE3 program will balloon, damaging the dollar. As of 0450 GMT, the euro was at $1.4365 from $1.4334 in New York on Wednesday and Y116.29 from Y115.99. The dollar, meanwhile, is at Y80.94 from Y80.96. The ICE Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies, was at about 74.767 from 74.844.
