Investing.com - The dollar rose to fresh two-month highs against the other major currencies on Thursday, boosted by the release of strong U.S. jobless claims data as it added to expectations for a December rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The dollar was boosted after the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 1 decreased by 5,000 to 249,000 from the previous week’s total of 254,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 257,000 last week.
Market participants were focusing on Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for further indications on the strength of the job market, as the Federal Reserve has indicated that future interest rate decisions will be data-dependent.
EUR/USD slipped 0.22% to 1.1181.
In the euro zone, data earlier showed that German factory orders rose 1.0% in August, beating expectations for an uptick of 0.2%. German factory orders increased by 0.3% in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.2% gain.
Meanwhile, speculation over the possibility that the European Central Bank could scale back its asset purchase program sooner than expected subsided after officials denied the rumors, saying that Governing Council “has not discussed these topics”.
GBP/USD retreated 0.84% to trade at a 31-year low of 1.2638.
Elsewhere, USD/JPY gained 0.35% to a one-month high of 103.86, while USD/CHF advanced 0.43% to 0.9784.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars extended earlier losses, with AUD/USD down 0.64% at 0.7574 and with NZD/USD sliding 0.36% to 0.7146.
Markets shrugged off a report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that the trade deficit narrowed to A$2.010 billion in August from A$2.121 billion in July. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to hit A$2.300 billion in August.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD added 0.11% to trade at 1.3193.
Statistics Canada reported on Thursday that building permits increased by 10.4% in August, beating expectations for a 3.0% rise.
Building permits rose 3.4% in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.8% uptick.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.32% at a fresh two-month high of 96.44.