BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The dollar touched its highest since January versus the euro and firmed against the yen Thursday as traders weighed a flurry of economic data from around the world.
Yesterday, minutes from the Federal Reserve's April meeting showed the pace of eventual interest rate hikes would probably be relatively slow, giving the dollar some momentum heading into today's session.
The dollar rose to $1.650 versus the euro amid speculation that the European Central Bank will announce stimulus measures despite some decent news on the euro zone economy.
The Eurozone private sector maintained growth momentum in May as new orders and output in services nullified the moderate weakness in manufacturing.
The flash composite output index came in at 53.9 in May, in line with expectations, but slightly down from 54 in April, figures from Markit Economics revealed Thursday.
The dollar rose to Y101.80 versus the yen, bouncing back from a 4-month low near Y101.
Gradual gains took the dollar to $1.6860 versus the sterling, trimming recent losses.
Existing home sales in the U.S. showed the first increase this year in the month of April, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors on Thursday, although sales rose by less than economists had anticipated.
NAR said existing home sales rose 1.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.65 million in April from 4.59 million in March.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims rebounded by more than expected in the week ended May 17th.
The report said jobless claims jumped to 326,000, an increase of 28,000 from the previous week's revised level of 298,000.
In China, the latest flash estimate from HSBC and Markit Economics showed that an index monitoring manufacturing activity in China came in with a score of 49.7 in May. That topped forecasts for a score of 48.3 and was up sharply from 48.1 in April.
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