Investing.com - The dollar held steady against other majors currencies on Thursday, after the release of mostly disappointing U.S. economic reports.
Trading volumes were expected to become more and more thin throughout the week, ahead of the Christmas holiday.
The Department of Labor reported on Thursday that initial jobless claims rose to 245,000 in the week ending December 15. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise to only 231,000 last week.
A separate report showed that the U.S. economy showed grew 3.2% in the third quarter, revised down from the previous reading of a 3.3% growth rate.
On a more positive note, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index rose unexpectedly to 26.2 this month from November's reading of 22.7.
The greenback showed little reaction after the House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest U.S. tax overhaul in 30 years, marking a major political victory for President Donald Trump.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was little changed at 92.95 by 08:50 a.m. ET (12:50 GMT), just off the previous session's two-and-a-half week low of 92.76.
The euro and the pound were lower, with EUR/USD down 0.10% at 1.1860 and with GBP/USD slipping 0.17% to 1.3352.
The yen was steady, with USD/JPY at 113.42, while USD/CHF gained 0.28% to 0.9896.
In a widely expected move, the Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged on Thursday.
The central bank also underlined the fact that as inflation is still far from the 2% target despite a growing economy.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar turned higher, with AUD/USD up 0.25% at 0.7686, while NZD/USD held steady at 0.7011.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD dropped 0.66% to trade at 1.2750 after Statistics Canada reported that retail sales increased by 1.5% in October, beating expectations for a 0.3% rise.
Data also showed that consumer price inflation gained 0.3% in November, more than the expected 0.2% uptick.