NEW YORK: The US dollar strengthened on Thursday as the US jobless claims report showed a decline in initial claims, Xinhua reported.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.59 per cent to 100.8764 in late trading, reaching the highest level in a week.
US initial jobless claims fell by 9,000 from the previous week to 228,000 for the week ending July 15, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics reported Thursday.
The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, fell by 9,250 to 237,500.
The US jobless claims report continued to reflect a tight labour market, which may contribute to the performance of the US dollar ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting next week.
The benchmark US 10-year Treasury yield rose on Thursday by more than 11.5 basis points to 3.855 per cent after the report.
“The market has been searching for signs of layoffs in the US and they simply aren’t materialising,“ said Adam Button, chief currency analyst at ForexLive in Toronto.
“Today’s initial jobless claims number underscores again that the US has an extremely strong labour market and that the Fed still has more work to do,“ he said.
Meanwhile, the existing home sales in the US declined 3.3 per cent in June to an adjusted annual rate of 4.16 million, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported on Thursday.
In late New York trading, the euro was down to US$1.1126 from US$1.1202 in the previous session, and the British pound fell to US$1.2858 from US$1.2929 in the previous session.
The US dollar bought 140.1930 Japanese yen, higher than 139.6080 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar rose to 0.8671 Swiss francs from 0.8587 Swiss francs, and it increased to 1.3178 Canadian dollars from 1.3160 Canadian dollars. The US dollar climbed to 10.3550 Swedish Krona from 10.2645 Swedish Krona.-Bernama