New York, The US dollar index increased against other major currencies as investors digested a batch of economic reports.
In late New York trading on Thursday, the euro decreased to $1.1541 from $1.1618 in the previous session, and the British pound fell to $1.2845 from $1.2892 in the previous session, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Australian dollar dipped to $0.7384 from $0.7438.
The US dollar bought 111.02 Japanese yen, higher than 110.97 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar increased to 0.9930 Swiss franc from 0.9929 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.3037 Canadian dollars from 1.3010 Canadian dollars.
In the week ending August 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims decreased 6,000 from the previous week’s revised level to 213,000, below market consensus, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
The four-week moving average was 214,250, a decrease of 500 from the previous week’s revised average.
In a separate report, the department announced that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand was unchanged in July, seasonally adjusted, missing market estimates of a 0.3-percent gain.
“Given the surprise weakness in both the headline PPI and ex-food and energy was due to an outsized drop in trade prices reversing just half the outsized gain in the two months prior, this is not really good news on the inflation front,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.47 per cent at 95.505 in late trading.
