By Saumya Vaishampayan and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar on Wednesday fell to its lowest level against the euro in November amid a generous helping of economic data before the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Weekly U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly dropped by 10,000 to 316,000, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Economists had expected claims to rise to 330,000, according to a MarketWatch poll.
Durable-goods orders declined 2% in October, a smaller drop than expectations of a 2.2% decline. The drop was largely due to fewer contracts for jumbo jets, the Commerce Department said.
Investors have been keeping watch on economic data as the Federal Reserve monitors the pace of recovery to gauge when it will begin to reduce monetary stimulus, which has been aimed at encouraging growth. Minutes from the Fed’s monetary-policy meeting in October, released last week, suggested the central bank may pull back on asset purchases at one of its upcoming meetings.
The Fed has said improvement in the labor market is a key factor in its policy assessment. Some analysts have said the central bank’s program of purchasing of $85 billion a month in debt hurts the greenback’s value.
The euro EURUSD +0.12% rose to $1.3603 from $1.3571 late Tuesday. That’s the highest level since the euro hit $1.3726 in late North American trade on Oct. 30.
“Market participants’ reactions to headlines from ECB policy makers appear to have moderated, as the focus turns to next weeks’ meeting,” said Camilla Sutton, chief foreign-exchange strategist at Scotiabank, in a note. “The key risk for [the euro] ahead of next week’s meeting lies with Friday’s release of advance inflation data for the euro area,” she added.
The ICE dollar index DXY -0.05% , a measure of the greenback against six rivals, moved down to 80.528 from late Tuesday’s level at around 80.618. The WSJ Dollar Index XX:BUXX +0.16% was at 73.44 versus 73.41.
The prospect that the Fed may slow asset purchases in December or in January has helped lift the ICE dollar index by roughly 0.5% in November, and a win for the month would be its first since August.
November readings of the Chicago PMI and consumer sentiment are also due Wednesday, as is the Conference Board’s report on leading economic indicators.
The British pound GBPUSD +0.48% surged to $1.6315 from $1.6212 late Tuesday. Britain’s economy grew 0.8% in the third quarter on a boost in consumer spending, according to a second estimate from Office for National Statistics.
“The mix of weaker [dollar] versus Europe and stronger [dollar] versus Asia continues,” said Richard Gilhooly, U.S. director of interest-rate strategy at TD Securities, in a note.
The dollar USDJPY +0.75% rose to ÂĄ101.80 from ÂĄ101.24, while the Australian dollar AUDUSD -0.57% fell to 90.75 U.S. cents from 91.26 U.S. cents late Tuesday.
Saumya Vaishampayan is a MarketWatch reporter based in New York. You can find her on Twitter @saumvaish.
Carla Mozee is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @MWMozee.
