* U.S. jobless claims, spending data weigh on dollar
* FOMC minutes still pressuring dollar
* Dollar/yen hits 10-mth low, euro/dollar at 15-mth high
* IMF, Dubai news help stem dollar selling (Updates prices, adds comments, U.S. data)
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The dollar slid to a fresh 15-month low against a basket of currencies on Wednesday as upbeat data on weekly jobless claims, personal consumption, and new home sales bolstered the outlook for the U.S. economy.
Traders also pushed the dollar to a 10-month low against the yen, encouraged by Federal Reserve minutes released on Tuesday which showed policymakers saw the U.S. currency's recent decline as "orderly." The minutes also affirmed expectations U.S. interest rates will stay essentially at zero until around mid-2010.
The U.S. reports along with the Fed stance emboldened investors to seek riskier investments elsewhere for higher returns, boosting higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar.
"The big thing today is dollar weakness against virtually every currency and that's a reflection in part of the FOMC's seeming comfort with the dollar's decline being relatively orderly," said Nick Bennenbroek, chief currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York.
The generally positive U.S. data also stoked the market's risk appetite, prompting a dollar sell-off, said Kathy Lien, director of FX research at GFT in New York.
For most of the year, the dollar, which is typically viewed as a safe haven, has tended to fall on upbeat economic news.
Lien specifically cited the decline in jobless claims. "Jobs are the most important thing, so they're latching on to the fact that jobless claims were below 500,000, which means we could see a better non-farm payrolls report going forward," she said.
Also enhancing U.S. economic prospects were an increase in new home sales and consumer confidence. <-------------------------------------------------
For a wrapup of the U.S. data, click on [ID:nN25346193]. For a graphic on US weekly jobless claims, please click on
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/US_IJCCSI1109.gif ------------------------------------------------->
The euro
The ICE Futures dollar index <.DXY>, which measures its performance against a basket of six currencies, fell to 74.399, a 15-month low. It last traded at 74.653, down 0.6 percent.
The dollar fell 1.0 percent to 87.69 yen
However, news the International Monetary Fund will likely tell euro zone finance ministers next week that the euro is undervalued versus the dollar has halted the dollar's slide, traders said.[ID:nGEE5AO0QR].
In addition, a report saying the government of Dubai will ask creditors of its two flagship firms, Dubai World and property group Nakheel, to a debt standstill, partly dented risk sentiment. [ID:nGEE5AO1HM].
"The Dubai news was a surprise and helped halt the rally in the euro against the dollar, as traders took some of their risky assets off the table," said Steven Butler, director of FX trading at Scotia Capital in Toronto. (Additional reporting by Steven C. Johnson; Editing by Andrea Ricci) ((gertrude.chavez@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6322; Reuters Messaging: gertrude.chavez.reuters.com@reuters.net))