U.S. Dollar Losing Ground Against Majors

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar declined against its major counterparts in the early European session on Thursday, as investors digested Fed Chair Jerome Powell's comments that policymakers had not made a decision on the scale and path of rate hikes in the future.

The outcome of the March 21-22 meeting would be dependent on the data, Powell told the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday.

"We haven't made a decision yet," Powell said, indicating that Friday's jobs data and next week's inflation data will play a key role in influencing the size of the rate hike.

Investors await U.S. nonfarm payrolls data from the Labor department, due on Friday.

Economists expect employment to increase by 200,000 jobs in February after an increase of 517,000 jobs in January. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.4 percent.

The greenback dropped to 2-day lows of 136.10 against the yen, 0.9370 against the franc and 1.1889 against the pound, from its prior highs of 137.35, 0.9416 and 1.1828, respectively. The greenback may locate support around 128.5 against the yen, 0.92 against the franc and 1.21 against the pound.

The greenback edged down to 1.0569 against the euro, 0.6622 against the aussie and 0.6134 against the kiwi, off its early highs of 1.0536, 0.6576 and 0.6098, respectively. The currency is seen finding support around 1.08 against the euro, 0.68 against the aussie and 0.63 against the kiwi.

The greenback weakened to 1.3789 against the loonie, after climbing to a 4-1/2-month high of 1.3817 in early deals. If the currency slides further, 1.33 is likely seen as its next support level.

U.S. weekly jobless claims for the week ended March 4 will be featured in the New York session.