The U.S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies in late New York trading on Thursday as the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it will raise interest rate to curb inflation and another powerful earthquake hit Japan. The ECB announced on Thursday that it will raise interest rates by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent to fend off inflation, marking its first increase since July 2008. The action by the monetary policy maker was in line with previous expectations by investors, the euro fell against the dollar in Thursday's trading session as investors collected their profits from previous betting on strong euro. The euro's loss widened after Portugal said it would ask the European Union for a financial bailout, making it the third eurozone member to seek financial aid from its peers. Meanwhile, the dollar trimmed its early gains against the Japanese yen after another 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Japan, as yen's repatriation concerns were raised. However, the greenback's loss was limited by upbeat economic data as the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday that initial claims for state unemployment aid slipped 10,000 to 382,000 last week, showing the improvement in job markets continued. In late Thursday trading, the dollar bought 84.96 yen, comparing with 85.47 late Wednesday, and the euro fell to 1.4297 dollars from 1.4336. The British pound also fell to 1.6315 dollars from 1.6332. The dollar fell from 0.9192 to 0.9163 against Swiss francs, and also fell to 0.9590 Canadian dollars from 0.9593.

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