1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls on soft data

The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies on Wednesday, dragged down by soft U.S. private sector job data and another downtick in the manufacturing activity.

The manufacturing index, also known as the purchasing managers index (PMI), registered 51.5 percent, a decrease of 1.4 percentage point from a month ago, the Institute for Supply Management said in a report on Wednesday. The latest reading was the lowest since May 2013.

Meanwhile, private sector employment rose by 189,000 jobs from February to March, below market expectation for a modest gain of 225,000, according to the March ADP National Employment Report Wednesday.

The pair of soft economic data spurred concerns that the closely-watched nonfarm payroll report due on Friday could pointed to a slowing economic growth.

"The March ADP report adds more concerns in front of Friday's payrolls, where the fallout of lower energy prices and a strengthening dollar may be finding its way to the job market," said Jay Morelock, an economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

The euro went up against the greenback for the first time in 11 days as economic reports from the eurozone showed sound recovery. Euro-area manufacturing expanded faster than estimated in March, as Markit's PMI hit a 10-month high, rising to 52.2 from 51 in February, said the London-based data processor Markit on Wednesday.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.0764 dollars from 1.0742 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.4826 dollars from 1.4845 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7600 dollars from 0.7612 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.61 Japanese yen, lower than 119.95 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar edged down to 0.9664 Swiss francs from 0.9723 Swiss francs, and it slipped to 1.2620 Canadian dollars from 1.2658 Canadian dollars. Endite