WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar moved in a tight range on Thursday, with traders largely making cautious moves, looking ahead to next week's Federal Reserve meeting.
Against other major currencies, the greenback exhibited a mixed trend today, with economic data and other news from respective regions providing direction.
Tame inflation data and report showing bigger than expected declines in import and export prices have raised hopes that the Fed will cut interest rates sometime soon.
The Labor Department said import prices fell by 0.3% in May following a revised 0.1% uptick in April.
Economists had expected import prices to dip by 0.2% compared to the 0.2% increase originally reported for the previous month.
Additionally, the report said export prices edged down by 0.2% in May after inching up by a revised 0.1% in April.
Export prices had been expected to slip by 0.1% compared to the 0.2% growth originally reported for the previous month.
With the bigger than expected monthly decreases, import and export prices both showed their biggest annual declines in over two years.
Meanwhile, a separate report from the Labor Department said first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged higher in the week ended June 8th, rising to 222,000, up 3,000 from the previous week's revised level of 219,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 216,000 from the 218,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The dollar index rose to 97.08 from an early low 96.87, and was last seen moving around 97.05, up marginally from previous close.
Against the euro, the dollar was up 0.13% at $1.1274.
The pound sterling was down 0.12% at $1.2675 and the Yen was gaining 0.11%, at 108.38 a dollar.
The greenback was up against the aussie, with the Aussie-dollar pair trading at 0.6913.
Against the loonie, the dollar was down 0.07% at 1.333, and against Swiss franc, it was down 0.13% at 0.9942.
The Swiss franc advanced against rivals after the Swiss National Bank left its expansionary monetary policy unchanged and pledged to intervene in forex market as required to contain the excessive strength of the currency arising from political uncertainty and trade tensions.
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