* U.S. dollar slide slows
* U.S. weekly jobless claims fall
* BoE holds quantitative easing, rates steady
(Updates prices, adds details)
By Vivianne Rodrigues
NEW YORK, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar steadied on
Thursday after sliding to its lowest in almost a year against
major currencies this week, but is seen vulnerable to further
selling.
The dollar initially fell versus the euro after a
better-than-expected reading on U.S. weekly jobless claims but
recovered a little groun das U.S. and European stocks failed to
extend earlier gains.
The U.S. currency has suffered recently as investors bet on
an economic recovery through commodity-linked and
higher-yielding currencies, which rallied earlier this week.
"Some caution has returned to the foreign exchange markets
today, and the dollar is mixed," said Nick Bennenbroek, head of
currency strategy at Wells Fargo Bank in New York. Still,
Bennenbroek warned that Thursday's rebound in the U.S. currency
may be short-lived.
"Dollar sentiment is still fragile, and the path of least
resistance for the dollar is still clearly to the downside in
the near term," he said.
In midday trading in New York, the euro was little changed
at $1.4564 <EUR=>. The euro zone single currency rose above
$1.46 for the first time in 2009 following a government report
that showed the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for
jobless benefits fell last week to 550,000, more than expected.
For details, see [].
The euro touched $1.4606, its highest since December 2008,
according to Reuters data.
"The jobless claims data looks like a pretty healthy
improvement from the previous week," said Omer Esiner, a senior
market analyst at Travelex Global Business Payments in
Washington.
In another release, the U.S. trade deficit for July widened
the most in more than 10 years. The trade gap expanded 16.3
percent in July to $32.0 billion, the biggest month-to-month
increase since February 1999. []
The dollar index <.DXY>, which tracks its performance
against a basket of six other major currencies, was little
changed, down 0.1 percent at 76.999. The index touched 76.775
earlier today, its lowest level in almost a year.
Against the yen, the dollar was down 0.2 percent at 91.78
yen <JPY=>, after hitting a seven-month low of 91.45 yen
earlier, according to Reuters data.
CENTRAL BANKS
Investors booked some gains in the Australian and New
Zealand dollars, driving them down from this week's one-year
highs while the euro briefly surged against the Swiss franc,
with traders citing talk that the Swiss National Bank has
checked exchange rates on the currency pair.
The euro rose as high as 1.5196 francs earlier <EURCHF=>
but it was last at 1.5144, nearly flat on the day.
The New Zealand dollar <NZD=> was little changed at
$0.6967, falling from a one-year high touched on Wednesday's
after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand governor said the
currency was overvalued. []
Earlier the RBNZ left rates on hold at a record low of 2.5
percent as expected but indicated it was less inclined to cut
rates again. []
The Australian dollar fell after data showed Australia's
employment dropped by more than double a Reuters forecast,
although the jobless rate held steady. The Aussie dropped 0.6
percent to $0.8580 <AUD=>.
Sterling rose after the Bank of England left monetary
policy unchanged as expected [] [],
countering speculation of further easing. The pound hit
multi-week highs at $1.6642 <GBP=>, while it touched the day's
high versus the euro at 87.30 pence <EURGBP=>.
(Additional reporting by Wanfeng Zhou in New York)
