The dollar climbed a bit against the yen on Friday, but largely stayed below recent highs against its major peers as investors looked ahead to a U.S. jobs report later in the day that could influence the path for interest rates.

The greenback climbed 0.20% against the yen to 142.8, while the euro was steady at $1.09455, just above the previous day's four-week low.

The pound was flat at $1.2710, just over Thursday's near five-week low touched briefly after the Bank of England slowed the pace of interest rates hikes to 25 basis points.

This left the dollar index at 102.56.

On Thursday, the index pushed to 102.84, the highest since July 7 , but lost steam later in the day with the monthly nonfarm payrolls report looming.

The report is due at 1230 GMT (0830 EST) and is expected to show U.S. job growth slowed further in July but still had enough momentum to shield the economy from a recession. A Reuters survey of economists predicts nonfarm payrolls (NFP) increased by 200,000 jobs last month.

The yen has been sensitive to higher U.S. yields as the Bank of Japan keeps local rates pinned down. Now, after the BOJ's surprise tweak last week, traders are trying to gauge how fast and how high it will let yields rise.

The Australian dollar climbed as much as 0.59% buoyed by the end of Chinese anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on Australian barley imports as the trade partners repair strained ties.

It gave back those gains later in the day, and was last flat at $0.6547.

The Swiss franc, the G10 currency that has gained the most against the dollar this year, slipped.

The dollar was last up 0.4% at 0.8776 francs, moving further away from an eight-and-a-half year low of 0.8554 touched in late July.

Source : Reuters