Dollar Loses Ground Against Major Counterparts

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar shed ground against its major counterparts on Thursday, despite data showing drop in jobless claims and final data from the Commerce Department confirming that the nation's GDP rose 3% in the second quarter, higher than the 1.4% jump in the first quarter.

Data from the Labor Department showed jobless claims in the U.S. slipped to 218,000 in the week ended September 21st, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level of 222,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 225,000 from the 219,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A report released by the National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index climbed by 0.6% to 70.6 in August after plunging by 5.5% to 70.2 in July.

Data from the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods were virtually unchanged in the month of August, after soaring by 9.9% in July. Economists had expected durable goods orders to tumble by 2.6%.

The dollar's decline was due to continued optimism about further interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. According to the CME FedWatch tool, the chances of a jumbo 50-bps cut in November currently remain above 60%.

The dollar index, which dropped to 100.48, recovered slightly to 100.58, but still remained well below the flat line, losing about 0.33%.

Against the Euro, the dollar weakened to 1.1178 from 1.1134. The dollar was weak against Pound Sterling as well, trading at 1.3413 a unit of the British currency.

Against the Japanese currency, the dollar gained marginally at 144.83 yen. The dollar weakened to 0.6894 against the Aussie.

The Swiss franc strengthened to 0.8462 a dollar, gaining from 0.8503. Against the Loonie, the dollar edged down marginally to C$ 1.3472 from C$ 1.3485.