The U.S. dollar climbed against most major currencies on Thursday as investors were still digesting the hawkish Federal Reserve minutes released earlier this week.
According to the minutes of the Fed's April meeting released Wednesday, officials are open to an interest rate hike as early as June, if the economy continues to improve.
"Most participants judged that if incoming data were consistent with economic growth picking up in the second quarter, labor market conditions continuing to strengthen, and inflation making progress toward the Committee's 2 percent objective, then it likely would be appropriate for the (Federal Open Market) Committee to increase the target range for the federal funds rate in June," said the minutes.
The minutes spurred market speculation that the U.S. central bank may raise interest rates for more than one time later this year.
On the U.S. economic front, in the week ending May 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 278,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, said the Labor Department Thursday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.22 percent at 95.286 in late trading. In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1200 dollars from 1.1229 dollars of the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.4619 dollars from 1.4587 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7224 dollars from 0.7234 dollars. The dollar bought 109.92 Japanese yen, lower than 109.93 yen of the previous session. The dollar climbed to 0.9902 Swiss francs from 0.9861 Swiss francs, and it inched up to 1.3087 Canadian dollars from 1.2991 Canadian dollars.
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