The U.S. dollar posted modest gains against major global currencies this morning as market participants turn their attention to the U.S. jobs report by the Labor Department, which is set for release today. The report will be critical for traders as it will help them assess the direction of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy in the coming months.

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Slew of Developments Around Dollar

The dollar has been mostly under pressure over the last two days after New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley made a statement indicating that more uncertainty in the global economy will have repercussions on the U.S. economy. The US non-farm payrolls data to be released today will dominate currency sentiment in the short run.

Also, a day earlier, the US Census Bureau reported that factory orders in the region declined in December, which is the fourth fall in five months. The reading declined by 2.9% in December against estimates of a 2.8% fall.

Other currencies

The euro was in negative territory this morning, posting 0.11% losses to 1.1195. The latest update coming from the Eurozone relates to German factory orders, which dipped by 0.7% month-on-month in December, as reported by Destatis. The fall is higher than the 0.5% decline expected by analysts. The number suggests that Germany’s economy continued to slow down in 2015, due to a substantial fall in orders from the country’s euro neighbors.

The British pound sterling was no exception, trimming earlier day gains by as much as 0.38% to 1.4533. At the same time, USD/JPY was seen trading higher by 0.10% to 116.89. The U.S. dollar index was marginally up by nearly 0.14% at 96.65 against a basket of major currencies.