The dollar pared gains against other major currencies on Thursday, after the release of disappoiting U.S. data dampened optimism over the strength of the economy.
The U.S. Department of Labor said initial jobless claims increased by 14,000 in the week ending April 22 to 257,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 243,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 245,000 last week.
Separately, the Commerce Department said that durable goods orders rose by 0.7% last month, compared to’ expectations for a gain of 1.2%. February’s orders were revised to an increase of 2.3% from a previously reported 1.8% climb.
Core durable goods orders, which exclude volatile transportation items, fell 0.2% last month, compared to forecasts for a 0.4% increase.
The data came a data after U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that his tax reform plan would cut the income tax rate paid by public corporations to 15% from 35% and make major changes to the individual-tax system.
However, the one page plan offered little new information on how it would be paid for without increasing the deficit and is likely to face legislative hurdles.
EUR/USD gained 0.25% to 1.0931, re-approaching a five-month peak of 1.0951 hit on Wednesday, after the European Central Bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record-low 0.0%, in line with forecasts.
The ECB also confirmed, as previously announced, that the size of its monthly quantitative easing program would continue at the new monthly pace of €60 billion until the end of December 2017, “or beyond, if necessary”.
Elsewhere, GBP/USD climbed 0.40% to 1.2900, just off a six-month peak of 1.2915 hit overnight.
USD/JPY rose 0.39% to 111.48, off a one-week trough of 111.03 reached earlier in the session, while USD/CHF slipped 0.13% to trade at 0.9921.
The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy on hold on Thursday, in a widely expected move.
The Australian dollar was steady, with AUD/USD at 0.7470, while NZD/USD shed 0.22% to 0.6873.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD slipped 0.29% to 1.3579, after climbing to fresh a 14-month high of 1.3648 overnight after the U.S. President said he does not plan to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) but renegotiate it instead.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.12% at 98.74.
