Investing.com - The dollar extended gains against a basket of other major currencies on Thursday, as data showed that U.S. jobless claims declined unexpectedly last week and as markets eyed additional U.S. economic reports to be released later in the day.
The dollar strengthened after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 11 decreased by 23,000 to 264,000 from the previous week’s total of 287,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 290,000 last week.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.47% to 85.27.
EUR/USD dropped 0.63%, pulling further away from a three-week high to trade at 1.2754.
Revised data earlier showed that euro zone consumer price inflation remained at 0.3% in September, in line with expectations.
Core CPI, which excludes food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco, ticked up to 0.8% last month from an initial estimate of 0.7%.
But the single currency remained fragile after data on Tuesday showed that the euro zone's industrial production declined more than expected in August, while a separate report showed that German economic sentiment deteriorated to the lowest level since December 2012 in October.
The pound slipped near 11-month lows, with GBP/USD down 0.11% at 1.5995.
The yen edged higher, with USD/JPY down 0.13% to 105.77, while the Swiss franc slid lower, with USD/CHF climbing 0.55% to 0.9455.
The commodity linked dollars pushed broadly lower, with AUD/USD tumbling 1.47% to 0.8702 and NZD/USD down 1.01% to 0.7903, while USD/CAD advanced 0.77% to trade near 5-year highs at 1.1336.
Statistics Canada reported that manufacturing sales declined by 3.3% in August, compared to expectations for a 2.0% fall. July's figure was revised to an increase of 2.9% from a previously estimated 2.5% rise.
In New Zealand, a report showed that the Business Manufacturing Index rose to a 13-month high of 58.1 in September from 57.0 in August, whose figure was revised up from a previously estimated reading of 56.5.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on industrial production and manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region.