Data showed on Thursday that new U.S. jobless claims marked a nine-month high last week, and Mid-Atlantic manufacturing shrank in August for the first time in more than a year, deepening worries about the fragile U.S. economic recovery.

Meanwhile, safe-haven assets, such as government bonds, the yen and the Swiss francs benefited.

Against the Japanese currency, the greenback fell to near a 15-year low of 84.72 yen the previous day, when two-year U.S. Treasury yields hit an all-time low.

The dollar/yen rate has a high correlation with U.S. and Japanese government bond yield spreads, which are now narrowing.