Investing.com - The dollar trimmed losses against the yen on Thursday after data showed that number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell to the lowest level since May 2007 last week.
USD/JPY was last trading at 101.82, up from lows of 101.43, the weakest level since March 19.
The pair was likely to find support at 101.43 and resistance at 102.15, Wednesday’s high.
The dollar found support after the Labor Department reported that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending April 4 fell by 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 300,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 332,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to decline to 320,000.
Continuing jobless claims declined to 2.77 million, the lowest since January 2008.
The dollar remained under pressure after the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting indicated that an interest rate increase is unlikely to be warranted for some time.
The Fed’s March meeting minutes released on Wednesday showed that policymakers discussed whether to keep interest rates at record lows until inflation moves higher, and did not elaborate on a possible timeframe for when rates could start to rise.
Last month the U.S. central bank reduced the monthly pace of purchases by $10 billion, to $55 billion, and repeated it is likely to continue paring the program in “further measured steps.”
“Members agreed that there was sufficient underlying strength in the broader economy to support ongoing improvement in labor-market conditions,” the minutes show.
Elsewhere, the dollar trading close to three-week lows against the euro, with EUR/USD edging up 0.05% to 1.3861.
In the euro zone, Greece made a successful return to the financial markets on Thursday, raising €3 billion in its first bond auction since 2010, when Athens sought its first bailout.