Investing.com - The dollar was little changed near five-and-a-half month lows against the other major currencies on Thursday, after upbeat U.S. jobless claims data as the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting continued to weigh.
USD/JPY was down 1.67% at a fresh 17-month low of 107.96.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending April 2 decreased by 9,000 to 267,000 from the previous week’s total of 276,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 6,000 to 270,000 last week.
The data came a day after the minutes from the Fed's March policy meeting indicated that the central bank is unlikely to raise interest rates before June due to concerns over global economic growth.
The minutes showed that "a number" of policymakers believe that headwinds to growth will probably persist and that many urged caution about raising rates.
Meanwhile, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday that he will “undertake additional monetary easing” if needed, either by increasing the central bank’s asset purchases or by lowering its deposit rate further below zero, or both.
EUR/USD slid 0.28% to 1.1370.
The euro weakened after senior European Central Bank officials reiterated that they are prepared to inject more stimulus if necessary.
The ECB’s chief economist, Peter Praet, said the bank was prepared to do more if the euro zone economy was hit by fresh shocks.
The comments were echoed by ECB Vice-President Vito Constancio who said in a speech to the European Parliament that the bank will continue to do whatever it takes to pursue its price stability objective.
Separately, ECB President Mario Draghi warned that 2016 would be another challenging year in the bank’s annual report on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the dollar was higher against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.22% at 1.4092 and was steady against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF at 0.9551.
In the U.K., data earlier showed that the Halifax house price index rose by 2.6% in March, beating expectationd for a 0.7% gain. House prices dropped 1.5% in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 1.4% decline.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars pushed lower, with AUD/USD down 1.17% at 0.7508 and with NZD/USD retreating 0.69% to 0.6777.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD gained 0.46% to trade at 1.3152.
The loonie found some support however after Statistics Canada reported that building permits increased by 15.5% in February, blowing past expectations for a 4.8% rise.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was steady at 94.50, just off a fresh five-and-a-half month low of 94.03 hit overnight.