Forex - Dollar gains on jobless claims report, growth data weigh

Investing.com - The dollar moved higher against most major currencies on Thursday after U.S. weekly jobless claims defied market expectations for a gain by contracting, though softer-than-expected gross domestic product growth rates hampered the greenback's advance.

In U.S. trading on Thursday, EUR/USD was down 0.32% at 1.3482.

The U.S. Department of Labor revealed earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless claims in the U.S. in the week ending Sept. 20 fell by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 305,000, from a downwardly revised 310,000 the previous week.

Analysts were expecting the figure to rise to 325,000, which gave the dollar support by keeping expectations alive for the Federal Reserve to begin tapering the pace of its monthly USD85 billion bond-purchasing program, which weakens the dollar by driving down interest rates to spur recovery.

Capping the greenback's advances, however, was an industry report released earlier showing that U.S. pending home sales dropped 1.6% in August, more than an expected 1.0% decline following a downwardly revised 1.4% contraction the previous month.

Also on Thursday, official data showed that the U.S. economy expanded by 2.5% in the second quarter, just shy of expectations for a 2.6% growth rate.

The greenback was up against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.26% at 1.6038.

The pound ran into headwinds after official data revealed that the U.K.'s gross domestic product expanded by 0.7% in the second quarter, in line with market expectations.

On a yearly basis, however, the U.K. economy rose 1.3% in the three months to June, missing expectations for a 1.5% increase.

A separate report showed that the U.K. current account deficit narrowed less than expected in the last quarter, coming in at GBP13 billion from a GBP21.8 billion deficit in the three months to March.

Analysts had expected the current account deficit to narrow to GBP12 billion in the second quarter.

The dollar was up against the yen, with USD/JPY up 0.44% at 98.87, and up against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF trading up 0.15% at 0.9106.

The yen moved lower against most major currencies amid expectations that the government will cut corporate taxes to spur recovery, which sent investors ditching the Japanese currency in favor of Japanese equities.

The dollar was mixed against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD flat at 1.0314, AUD/USD down 0.17% at 0.9351 and NZD/USD trading up 0.46% at 0.8278.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.31% at 80.66.

On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with revised data on consumer sentiment and inflation expectations from the University of Michigan as well as data on personal income and expenditure.

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