Investing.com - The dollar was little changed against a basket of other major currencies in quiet trade on Thursday, after the release of U.S. economic reports as expectations for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve in the coming months continued to support the greenback.
USD/JPY was up 0.48% to 124.22, the most since June 2002.
The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index increased by 3.4% last month to the highest level since 2006, easily surpassing expectations for a gain of 0.9%.
Year-on-year, pending home sales rose at annualized rate of 13.4% in April, blowing past forecasts for an increase of 10.2% and following a gain of 13.5% in February.
The data came after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending May 23 rose by 7,000 to 282,000 from the previous week’s total of 275,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 5,000 to 270,000 last week.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned as economic data released in the past week, including reports on inflation, new home sales, business investment and consumer confidence all indicated that the U.S. economy is gaining momentum after a slowdown in the first quarter.
Expectations that the economy will rebound from the first quarter have supported the view that the Federal Reserve will begin to hike interest rates around September.
EUR/USD was steady at 1.0897, after rising to highs of 1.0950 earlier in the day.
The euro gained ground after the Greek government said Wednesday it had started drafting an agreement with its international creditors, signaling progress in long-running negotiations to unlock more financial aid.
However, European officials subsequently played down suggestions of a deal, saying negotiators still had several issues to address before an agreement could be reached.
The pound remained lower, with GBP/USD down 0.48% to 1.5286, while the Swiss franc gained ground, with USD/CHF sliding 0.21% to 0.9474.
Sterling weakened after the U.K. Office for National Statistics' second estimate of gross domestic product confirmed growth of 0.3% % in the first quarter, unchanged from the initial estimate and below expectations for a reading of 0.4%.
On a year-over-year basis, GDP expanded 2.4%, also in line with the first estimate.
The commodity-linked currencies were still lower, with AUD/USD down 1.33% to 0.7633 and with NZD/USD tumbling 1.75% to trade at 0.7147.
USD/CAD climbed 0.52% to fresh six-week highs of 1.2517.
Data earlier showed that Canada's current account deficit widened less than expected to C$17.5 billion in the first quarter from C$13.1 billion in the last quarter of 2014, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of C$13.9 billion.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.22% at 97.55, close to Wednesday's five-week highs of 97.88.