WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar moved in a tight band against most of its rivals on Thursday, with traders staying cautious ahead of the G20 summit, which begins in Japan on Friday.
The meeting between the U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to provide clues about what could be in store on the trade front.
The dollar index, which advanced to 96.39 around mid morning, after having dropped to a low of 96.14 earlier in the session, was last seen moving around 96.20, little changed from previous close.
Against the euro, the dollar moved between 1.1348 and 1.1383 and was near the flat line at 1.1371 in late trades on Thursday.
The euro struggled after data from the European Commission said eurozone economic sentiment deteriorated more-than-expected to the lowest level in nearly three years in June, strengthening calls for further monetary easing.
The economic sentiment index dropped to 103.3 in June from 105.2 in May. This was the lowest since August 2016, when the reading was 103.2. The score was forecast to fall moderately to 104.7.
Against Pound Sterling, the greenback was up nearly 0.2%, at 1.2665, off the day's low of $1.2725.
The Japanese yen was up slightly with a dollar fetching 107.75 yen.
The dollar was lower by 0.3% and 0.2% against the Aussie and loonie, with the respective pairs trading at 0.7008 and 1.3101.
Against Swiss franc, the dollar was down 0.15% at 0.9765.
According to a report in The South China Morning Post, the U.S. and China have agreed to a tentative truce in their trade dispute that would help avert the next round of tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports.
A report from the Wall Street Journal said Xi plans to present Trump with a set of terms the U.S. should meet before Beijing is ready to settle the trade dispute.
Lifting the ban on the sale of U.S. technology to Chinese telecom giant Huawei, removing all tariffs and dropping efforts to get China to buy more U.S. exports are reportedly among the preconditions.
However, Trump is not likely to appreciate Xi dictating terms and has repeatedly threatened to escalate the trade war with new tariffs on the remaining Chinese imports.
The U.S. President voiced optimism over the possibility of a trade agreement with China but said he is still considering imposing 'very substantial' tariffs on all Chinese imports if the two countries were unable to reach a deal during the meeting.
In U.S. economic news, a report from the Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose to 227,000 in the week ended June 22nd, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level of 217,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 220,000 from the 216,000 originally reported for the previous week.
A report released by the Commerce Department showed the pace of U.S. economic growth in the first quarter was unrevised from the previous estimate. The report said real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 3.1% in the first quarter, unrevised from the estimate released last month and in line with economist estimates. It still reflects a significant acceleration from the 2.2% increase seen in the fourth quarter of 2018.
According to a report the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales in the U.S. jumped by slightly more than anticipated in the month of May, after showing a steep drop in April.
NAR said its pending home sales index surged up by 1.1% to 105.4 in May after tumbling by 1.5% to 104.3 in April. Economists had expected the index to increase by 1%.
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