NEW YORK, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Thursday as market participants awaited a highly-anticipated monthly U.S. jobs report.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.76 percent to 105.6940.

In late New York trading, the euro increased to 1.0252 U.S. dollars from 1.0157 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.2174 dollars from 1.2145 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar rose to 0.6981 U.S. dollar from 0.6947 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 132.91 Japanese yen, lower than 134.11 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar fell to 0.9546 Swiss franc from 0.9623 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.2851 Canadian dollars from 1.2842 Canadian dollars.

The U.S. Labor Department said Thursday that U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, increased by 6,000 to 260,000 in the week ending July 30, near the highest level since November.

The more closely-watched July U.S. jobs report is slated for release on Friday.