MW: Dollar slips after better-than-expected jobless data
Yen, euro gain against greenback
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. dollar fell slightly against its rivals Thursday after the U.S. said that weekly jobless claims were fewer than consensus estimates.
The dollar index (DXY 82.49, -0.10, -0.12%) , a measure of the U.S. unit against a basket of major rivals, traded at 82.438, down from earlier in the session and below the 82.545 seen in North American trade late Wednesday.
The Department of Labor said Thursday that initial claims for regular state unemployment insurance benefits fell 27,000 to 451,000 last week. Economists had expected the number of claims at about 470,000. Read in full about jobless claims data.
Throughout the U.S. financial crisis and its bumpy recovery, the U.S. dollar has tended to benefit from safe-haven demand - rising when U.S. economic prospects look bleak and falling when optimistic investors flock to currencies with higher yields, such as the Australian dollar.
The euro (EURUSD 1.2731, +0.0008, +0.0629%) made up early losses to trade at $1.2740 versus the dollar, up from $1.2731 late Wednesday in range-bound trade.
"The driver of the currency market is euro/dollar. But it seems asleep at the wheel right now," said Steve Barrow, currency and fixed-income strategist at Standard Bank. "Traders' paranoia over further [quantitative easing] from the Fed, which could decimate the dollar, is only matched by the fear of default from a euro-zone member, which could decimate the euro."
With the euro/dollar pair stuck, overall currency trade is moribund, he said.
The dollar changed hands versus the Japanese currency (USDYEN 83.7600, -0.1100, -0.1312%) at 83.75 yen, up from earlier but down from ¥83.94 on Wednesday. The euro (EURYEN 106.6300, -0.0500, -0.0469%) bought ¥106.71, down 0.1%.
The dollar hit its lowest level versus the yen since May 1995 on Wednesday. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Thursday renewed a warning that he would take "decisive steps" to halt the yen's rise, news reports said.
The Australian dollar (AUDUSD 0.9261, +0.0076, +0.8273%) added to gains versus the dollar, up 0.9% at 92.62 U.S. cents.
Australian jobs rose 30,900 for the sixth consecutive monthly rise, while the unemployment rate fell to an 18-month low of 5.1%. Read about the Australian jobs data.
The British pound also gained versus the dollar, but at $1.5443 was still down from $1.5480 on Wednesday.
The pound was slightly affected by the widely-expected decision by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday to leave its key lending rate unchanged and to leave its quantitative-easing program of bond purchases on hold. Read about the BOE decision.
The pound saw pressure earlier in the session after the Office for National Statistics reported that Britain's seasonally-adjusted deficit on trade in goods widened to a record 8.7 billion pounds ($13.4 billion) in July from an upwardly revised 7.5 billion pounds in June.
