U.S. dollar falls despite upbeat data

NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar decreased against most major currencies on Thursday despite positive jobs data from the country.

The U.S. private sector added 250,000 jobs in December, well above the market consensus of 190,000, according to the National Employment Report released by ADP Research Institute on Thursday.

The ADP figure is widely seen as a pre-indicator for the non-farm payrolls report due on Friday.

Analysts said although the U.S. jobs report came out better than expected, the current soft inflation data in the country still weighed on the greenback.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.29 percent at 91.899 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.2069 U.S. dollars from 1.2015 U.S. dollars, and the British pound climbed to 1.3548 U.S. dollars from 1.3514 U.S. dollars. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7860 U.S. dollar from 0.7833 U.S. dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 112.77 Japanese yen, higher than 112.52 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9748 Swiss franc from 0.9777 Swiss franc, and it edged down to 1.2507 Canadian dollars from 1.2545 Canadian dollars. Enditem