Dollar Rises After Jobless Claims Data, But Fails To Sustain Gains

(RTTNews) - After staying a bit subdued in the European Session, the U.S. dollar moved higher in the New York session on Thursday after data showed an unexpected drop in jobless claims in the week ended September 14th.

The 'jumbo' half-a-percentage point interest rate cut announced by the Federal Reserve weighed on greenback a bit and limited its upmove.

Data from the Labor Department said initial jobless claims slid to 219,000 last week, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised level of 231,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 230,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected decline, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 216,000 in the week ended May 18th.

A reading on Philadelphia-area manufacturing activity returned to positive territory in the month of September, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia revealed in a report released today.

The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity jumped to a positive 1.7 in September from a negative 7.0 in August, with a positive reading indicating growth. Economists had expected the index to surge to a positive 2.0.

Looking ahead, the Philly Fed said firms continue to expect growth over the next six months, with expectations more widespread this month.

The dollar index, which climbed to 101.47 after the jobless claims data, pared its gains subsequently, and was at 100.61 a little while ago, up just marginally from the previous close.

Against the Euro, the dollar weakened to 1.1163 from 1.1119, and eased to 1.3281 against Pound Sterling, losing more than 0.5%.

The dollar firmed against the Japanese currency, climbing to 143.70 yen, but eased slightly from that level to 142.59 yen, still gaining about 0.2%. Against the Aussie, the dollar weakened to 0.6812 from 0.6764.

The Swiss franc weakened to 0.8474 a unit of greenback, while the Loonie firmed to 1.3566 a unit of U.S. dollar.