In afternoon trading in London the dollar held steady in advance of a closely scrutinized US jobs report for June. Earlier in the week, before the ADP Employer Services survey was released, the market was looking for non farm payrolls in June to have moved upwards 160,000 from May's 75,000. The final numbers show the non farm payrolls are up around 200,000. Some analysts predict that upon a payroll surge the pressure will be on the US Fed to increase interest rates again next month. The anticipation for the hike dropped to 65 percent last week after a fairly dovish statement was published by Federal Reserve policy makers.

The euro was making headway after yesterday's hint of European Central Bank will be hiking rates by a quarter point.