Investing.com - The dollar held steady against the other major currencies on Thursday, despite the release of a positive U.S. jobless claims report, as investors turned their attention to Friday’s U.S. data on retail sales and consumer sentiment.
EUR/USD was little changed at 1.1173.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 6 decreased by 1,000 to 266,000 from the previous week’s total of 267,000, which was revised from the initial read of 269,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to drop by 4,000 to 265,000 last week.
But market participants were now awaiting Friday’s U.S. retail sales and consumer sentiment data for further indications on the strength of the economy after weak data published earlier in the week dampened expectations for a 2016 rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
GBP/USD declined 0.33% to a one-month low of 1.2968.
The pound remained under selling pressure after the Bank of England missed its target in a new bond buying program aimed at bolstering the economy on Tuesday.
USD/JPY held steady at 101.24, while USD/CHF shed 0.30% to trade at 0.9721.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars remained stronger, with AUD/USD up 0.21% at 0.7720 and with NZD/USD advancing 0.64% to 0.7259.
The kiwi strengthened despite the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s decision to lower its benchmark interest rate to 2.00% from 2.25% at the conclusion of its policy meeting on Thursday, in a widely expected move.
Commenting on the move, RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler said "the high exchange rate is adding further pressure to the export and import competing sectors."
"This makes it difficult for the bank to meet its inflation objective," he added.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD fell 0.28% to trade at 1.3022.
Also Thursday, Statistics Canada reported that new home prices rose 0.1% in June, confounding expectations for a 0.3% gain and after an increase of 0.7% the previous month.
But the commodity-related loonie found some support as oil prices moved sharply higher after the International Energy Agency forecast crude markets would rebalance in the next few months following several years of heavy overproduction.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was little changed at 95.59, still close to Wednesday’s one-week low of 95.38.