Early trade in New York: dollar little changed against basket of currencies

The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies on Thursday, as its rebound from a five-week low, touched earlier this week, ran out of steam and trading activity slowed down ahead of the long Easter weekend in many of the world's largest trading centers.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, was about flat on the day at 90.066. The index was down about 2 percent for the quarter, on pace for its fifth straight quarter of declines.
"It's pretty quiet trading. We are coming into the tail end of a shortened week for most people," said Shaun Osborne, chief FX strategist at Scotiabank in Toronto.
"I think a lot of the month-end and quarter-end flows probably went through earlier this week just because everyone was looking at today and thinking it was likely to be a thinly traded day," Osborne added. The dollar index rose to a one-week high on Wednesday, helped by end-of-month and end-of-quarter rebalancing of portfolios by global asset and fund managers, which tends to be dollar-supportive.
The greenback was 0.52 percent lower against the yen, after rising 1.4 percent ovver the previous two sessions The euro edged higher against the dollar after data showing German unemployment falling more than expected pointed to continued strength in the euro zone's largest economy, but failed to hold gains and was trading little changed on the day. Sterling slipped on Thursday as economic data failed to impress, though the currency remains on course for its best quarter against the dollar since 2015.