WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar turned in a slightly volatile performance on Thursday as traders reacted to a slew of upbeat U.S. economic data, and the Bank of England's monetary policy announcement.
The Labor Department's report showed initial jobless claims in the U.S. edged down to 411,000 in the week ended June 19th, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level of 418,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to drop to 380,000 from the 412,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Data from the Commerce Department showed that new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods rebounded in the month of May, surging up by 2.3%, after falling by a revised 0.8% in April. Economists had expected durable goods orders to spike by 2.7% compared to the 1.3% slump that had been reported for the previous month.
A separate report showed that the pace of U.S. economic growth in the first quarter of 2021 was unrevised from the previous estimate.
The report said real gross domestic product spiked by 6.4% in the first quarter, matching the estimate provided last month as well as economist estimates.
The dollar index, which dropped to 91.66 post release of the data on jobless claims, durable goods orders and GDP, recovered to 91.91 subsequently, and was last seen hovering around 91.80.
Against the Euro, the U.S. dollar recovered to 1.1934 from 1.1958.
The Pound Sterling weakened against the dollar, fetching $1.3926 per unit, about 0.26% less than Wednesday's close of $1.3962. The Bank of England today kept its key interest rate and quantitative easing unchanged, as widely expected. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee headed by Andrew Bailey unanimously decided to hold the benchmark rate at a record low of 0.1%.
The central bank retained the existing stock of corporate bond purchases at GBP 20 billion and the government bond purchases at GBP 875 billion, taking the size of total quantitative easing to GBP 895 billion.
The Yen gained marginally against the dollar, firming to 110.88 from 110.95.
Against the Aussie, the dollar was slightly weak at 0.7583, compared to 0.7575 Wednesday evening.
The Swiss franc gained marginally at CHF 0.9179 a dollar, up from CHF 0.9185, while the Loonie weakened to 1.2324 a dollar from 1.2306.
Statistics Canada said that according to a flash estimate, Canada's manufacturing sales went up 1% from a month earlier in May, rebounding from a 2.1% drop in April, on the back of a widespread recovery across Canadian industries.
Wholesale sales in Canada likely advanced by 1.1% month-over-month in May of 2021, following a 0.4% rise in the previous month, preliminary estimates showed. The increase reflects higher sales in the machinery, equipment and supplies subsector.
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