Investing.com - The dollar firmed against most major currencies on Thursday in wake of upbeat U.S. jobless claims data, while dovish comments from European Central Bank Mario Draghi pushed the euro lower and further bolstered the greenback's appeal.
In U.S. trading on Thursday, EUR/USD was down 0.35% at 1.2691.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Oct. 4 fell by 1,000 to 287,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 288,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 6,000 to 294,000 last week, and the numbers gave the greenback room to brush off a dovish Federal Reserve report.
The dollar softened broadly on Wednesday after the minutes of the Fed's Sept. 16-17 policy meeting revealed that a number of monetary authorities believe the bank's current language painted the wrong picture on the timing of rate hikes and that an interest rate rise should be tied to U.S. economic recovery.
The minutes also showed that the U.S. central bank cut its growth outlook due to a stronger dollar and concerns over global weakness.
Elsewhere, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi spoke earlier and reiterated that the institution's willingness to loosen policy to steer the euro area away from deflationary decline if needed, adding that markets are expecting the bank to begin hiking interest rates some time in 2017.
The dollar was down against the yen, with USD/JPY down 0.25% at 107.80, and up against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF up 0.23% at 0.9540.
In Japan, government data on Thursday revealed that Japan's core machinery orders rose 4.7% in August, more than an expected 1.1% increase, after a 3.5% gain in July, which strengthened the yen earlier.
The greenback was up against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.27% at 1.6123.
The dollar was up against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD up 0.48% at 1.1163, AUD/USD down 0.74% at 0.8776 and NZD/USD down 0.62% at 0.7857.
The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.28% at 85.61.
On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with data on import prices.