WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After staying quite subdued in the Asian session on Thursday, the U.S. dollar drifted lower after data showed an unexpected rise in U.S. jobless claims in the week ended July 17th.
Although the currency rebounded subsequently, it still stayed somewhat sluggish as the session progressed but posted gains against most of its major rivals.
Data from the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims in the U.S. unexpectedly climbed to 419,000 in the week ended July 17th, an increase of 51,000 from the previous week's revised level of 368,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 350,000 from the 360,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Meanwhile, a separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed existing home sales jumped by 1.4% to an annual rate of 5.86 million in June after slumping by 1.2 percent to a revised rate of 5.78 million in May.
Economists had expected existing homes sales to surge up by 1.7% to a rate of 5.90 million from the 5.80 million originally reported for the previous month.
In news from Europe, the European Central Bank left its key interest rates unchanged, but revised its forward guidance on the same to support its new inflation target. The central bank left the main refinancing rate at 0%, the deposit rate at -0.5% and the marginal lending rate at 0.25%, in line with economists' expectations.
Policymakers decided to revise its forward guidance on interest rates as the key ECB interest rates have been close to their lower bound for some time and the medium-term outlook for inflation is still well below the Governing Council's target.
The dollar index, which rose to 92.92, recovering from 92.51, was last seen hovering around 92.85, up 0.12% from the previous close.
Against the Euro, the dollar firmed to 1.1770 from 1.1796.
The Pound Sterling weakened to $1.3767, dropping from $1.3716.
Against the Yen, the dollar eased a bit, fetching 110.18 yen, compared to 110.29 on Wednesday.
The dollar weakened against the Aussie, dropping to 0.7383 from 0.7359.
The Swiss franc eased to 0.9192 a dollar from 0.9176, while the Loonie weakened a bit to 1.2563 a dollar from 1.2557.
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