US dollar rises on upbeat data

New York, Feb 19: The US dollar climbed against most major peers on Thursday as the jobs report from the country came out positive.

In the week ending February 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 262,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 269,000, the US Labour Department said on Thursday.

The four-week moving average was 273,250, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 281,250.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six other currencies, was up 0.18 percent at 96.960 in late trading, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the previous session, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its January monetary policy meeting. According to the minutes, the central bank policy makers concerned that the falling crude prices and the rout of global financial market could pose risks to the US economy.

In late New York trading, the euro fell to $1.1092 from $1.1142 of the previous session, and the British pound increased to $1.4321 from $1.4280. The Australian dollar went down to $0.7154 from $0.7172.

The dollar bought 113.57 Japanese yen, lower than 113.83 yen of the previous session. The dollar moved up to 0.9953 Swiss francs from 0.9916 Swiss francs, and it rose to 1.3740 Canadian dollars from 1.3714 Canadian dollars.  (IANS)