New York: The US dollar lost strength on Thursday after data showed a record surge in the number of Americans applying for jobless benefits due to the coronavirus outbreak.
In late New York trading, the euro was up to $1.1040 from $1.0867 in the previous session, and the British pound was up to $1.2151 from $1.1870 in the previous session. The Australian dollar was up to $0.6080 from $0.5960, Xinhua reported.
The US dollar bought 109.23 Japanese yen, lower than 111.36 Japanese yen of the previous session. The US dollar was down to 0.9622 Swiss franc from 0.9779 Swiss franc, and it was down to 1.4029 Canadian dollars from 1.4204 Canadian dollars.
US initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, were registered at 3,283,000 in the week ending March 21, an increase of 3,001,000 from the previous week’s revised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. The reading easily topped market consensus.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 1.67 per cent at 99.3761 in late trading.
Prasanta Patnaik