Tokyo - The dollar was steady ahead of a key US jobs report, while the euro struggled after the European Central Bank released details of an unprecedented monetary easing plan designed to lift the faltering eurozone economy.
In Tokyo, the greenback slipped to 119.99 yen from 120.14 yen in New York but it was still up from 119.85 yen in Tokyo earlier on Thursday.
The single currency bought $1.1025 against $1.1028 in US trade where it pushed below $1.10 for the first time since September 2003.
It is sharply down from around $1.12 at the beginning of the week.
It also slipped to 132.28 yen from 132.50 yen in New York.
“The euro's sharp plunge is elevating the dollar,” Takeru Kurokawa, an analyst in Tokyo at Ueda Harlow, wrote in a client note. “Payrolls within expectations should be dollar supportive.”
The US Labour Department releases jobs data later on Friday, which investors will pore over for clues about the state of the world's top economy, and when the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates.
Analysts forecast job growth slipped to 240 000 in February from 257,000 in January, while the unemployment rate edged down to 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent.
The lower expectations - following a surge in January - come on the back of a series of disappointing economic data that have cast doubt on how well the labour market has held up.
On Thursday, ECB chief Mario Draghi said the bank will start buying government debt in its new 1.1 trillion euro quantitative easing programme on Monday.
The eurozone's top central banker also offered some upbeat news, saying the ECB was raising its growth forecasts for the 19-nation bloc, although he added that inflation would come in at zero this year, lower than previously projected.
* Bloomberg News contributed to this report
AFP