The greenback edged higher against the majors in the Wednesday session, pushing the euro beneath the 1.44-level and the sterling below the 1.70-figure as US equities drifted into negative territory. The economic reports released earlier in the session were largely worst than expected, with July ADP private sector payrolls and non-manufacturing ISM falling short of consensus estimates.

The July ADP private sector payrolls posted a loss of 371k jobs, exceeding calls for 340k, albeit improving from 473k a month prior. The July non-manufacturing ISM unexpectedly deteriorated to 46.4, falling short of estimates for an improvement to 48.0 from a month earlier at 47.0. Meanwhile, the headline durable goods orders for June improved to -2.2% versus -2.5% from May and factory orders rose by 0.4%, off from 1.2% a month earlier. Thursday’s data will see weekly jobless claims.

The key highlight will be Friday’s July labor report. The consensus forecast is for the unemployment rate to creep closer to the 10% figure at 9.7% in July versus 9.5% from June. The non-farm payrolls figure is expected to improve sharply, posting a loss of 320k jobs compared with 467k jobs lost a month earlier.