Forexpros - The U.S. dollar remained broadly higher against its major counterparts on Thursday, as mixed U.S. economic reports and sustained concerns over the handling of the euro zone’s financial crisis weighed on demand for riskier assets. During U.S. morning trade, the dollar was higher against the euro, with EUR/USD inching 0.05% lower to hit 1.3150. The euro found some support after European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said that policymakers did not discuss an interest-rate cut at their monthly meeting earlier, when the bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1%, in a widely expected decision. Draghi also refrained from pledging more liquidity boosting measures, saying that the bank’s long-term financing operations needed time to work The comments came after an auction of Spanish government debt which met with solid investor demand but saw the country’s short-term borrowing costs rise sharply. Spain sold the full targeted amount of EUR2.5 billion of government bonds in its first debt sale since being downgraded by Standard & Poor’s, but the yield on the country’s five-year bonds rose to 4.96% from 3.69%, while the yield on three-year bonds climbed to 4.03% from 2.61%. Meanwhile, the U.S. Institute of Supply Management said that its non-manufacturing purchasing manager's index declined to 53.5 in April from a reading of 56.0 in March. Analysts had expected the index to decline by 0.5 points to 55.5 in March. The data came after the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending April 28 fell to 365,000, dropping by the most since May 2011 and beating expectations for a decline to 380,000. A separate report showed that non-farm business sector labor productivity declined 0.5% in the first quarter, in line with expectations, while unit labor costs rose 2%, below expectations for a 2.8% gain. The greenback was steady against the pound, with GBP/USD easing 0.02% to hit 1.6197. In the U.K., a report showed that service sector activity expanded at a slower rate than expected in April, falling to the lowest level since November, but the report indicated that the overall outlook remained positive. The services purchasing managers index fell to 53.3 in April, from 55.3 the previous month, worse than expectations for a decline to 54.6. Elsewhere, the greenback was higher against the yen and steady against the Swiss franc, with USD/JPY rising 0.29% to hit 80.37 and USD/CHF easing up 0.03% to hit 0.9135. The greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD adding 0.11% to hit 0.9874, AUD/USD dropping 0.65% to hit 1.0265 and NZD/USD plummeting 1.27% to hit 0.8004. The New Zealand dollar weakened broadly after official data showed that the country’s unemployment rate rose unexpectedly in the first quarter, climbing to 6.7%, against expectations for a decline to 6.3%. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.10%, at 79.28.

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