Meanwhile, Britain's economy shrank by a record 19.8% in the second quarter of 2020 when COVID-19 lockdown measures were in force, a slightly smaller decline than an initial estimate of a 20.4% fall in output, official figures showed on Wednesday.
Since the UK is already reintroducing local lockdowns, it doesn't look like any sustained economic recovery will last anytime soon.
Earlier in the day, Chinese PMIs came out better than expected, but this time traders ignored them.
Later in the session, another revision of the US Q2 GDP is due, and the ADP employment change for September. Market participants expect 648,000 new jobs, up from 428,000 in August.
The greenback came out of the Asian session slightly stronger, which put some pressure on precious metals. Gold was down half a percent, while silver dropped 1.5% to trade near 23.80 USD.