The U.S. dollar climbed against most other major currencies on Thursday as investors pondered over the European Central Bank's (ECB) decision to keep interest rates unchanged.
The ECB decided to take no further action on its monetary policy for the euro area on Thursday, leaving the key interest rates unchanged. ECB President Mario Draghi said Thursday at a press conference that the question of the extension of the Asset Purchase Programme -- also known as Quantitative Easing (QE) -- had not been discussed at the governing council meeting.
"For the time being, the changes are not so substantial to warrant a decision to act," he said.
On the U.S. economic front, in the week ending Sept. 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 259,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 263,000, the Labor Department announced Thursday.
The 4-week moving average was 261,250, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 263,000. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, inched up 0.08 percent at 95.029 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1257 dollars from 1.1239 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.3299 U.S. dollars from 1.3335 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar dipped to 0.7643 dollar from 0.7671 dollar. The U.S. dollar bought 102.50 Japanese yen, higher than 101.77 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rallied to 0.9728 Swiss franc from 0.9697 Swiss franc, and it moved up to 1.2919 Canadian dollars from 1.2899 Canadian dollars.
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