Forex - Dollar falls on healthy global manufacturing data

Forexpros - The dollar fell against the world's major currencies in Asian trading on Thursday after a wave of healthy manufacturing figures popped up in the U.S., Europe and in China, prompting investors to short the greenback and embark in search of better returns in stocks and other currencies.

The dollar dipped against the euro in Asian trading, with EUR/USD rising 0.17% and trading at 1.3182 early in the session.

European and German Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Indices came in better than expected on Wednesday, as did similar data in China.

The Markit Economics manufacturing data based on a survey of purchasing managers in the euro region rose to 48.8 in January, outpacing expectations.

U.K. factory data surprised on the upside as well.

In the U.S., data from payroll company Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed that the economy added 170,000 nonfarm payrolls in January, below expectations although manufacturing data offset the jobs numbers.

In the U.S., the Institute for Supply Management said its January index of national factory activity rose to 54.1 from a revised 53.1 the month before, slightly below market expectations, however, the manufacturing price index exceeded expectations by rising to 55.5 from 47.5.

Meanwhile, the dollar was lower against the pound, with Cable rising 0.14% to hit 1.5856.

The greenback was down 0.09% against the yen, with USD/JPY trading at 76.14, and down against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF also dipping 0.09% to 0.9146.

The greenback was down against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD down 0.16% at 0.9972, AUD/USD up 0.32% at 1.0740 and NZD/USD up 0.23% at 0.8344.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was down 0.16% at 78.91.

The U.S. is looking ahead to Friday's official unemployment data with growing anticipation, although on Thursday, markets will pay attention to initial jobless claims as well as preliminary data on nonfarm productivity and unit labor costs.

Later Thursday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is set to testify on the economic outlook before the House budget committee.

The U.K. is to produce industry data on construction sector activity, a leading indicator of economic health.