Investing.com - The dollar was broadly higher against a basket of other major currencies on Friday, as Thursday's upbeat U.S. data continued to boost demand for the greenback and as investors awaited additional U.S. economic reports due later in the day.
The dollar strengthened broadly on Thursday after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 11 decreased by 23,000 to a 14-year low of 264,000 from the previous week’s total of 287,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 290,000 last week.
A separate report showed that U.S. industrial production climbed 1.0% last month, beating expectations for a 0.4% rise.
The greenback's gains were limited however as St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said the U.S. central bank may want to maintain its bond buying for now given a drop in inflation expectations.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was steady at 85.08.
EUR/USD was little changed at 1.2799, not far from Wednesday's three-week high of 1.2886.
Sentiment on the euro remained vulnerable amid growing concerns over the threat of deflation in the euro zone after revised data on Thursday showed that bloc's consumer price inflation rose by 0.3% in September, in line with expectations.
The rate has now been below 1% for 12 straight months, well under the European Central Bank's target of near but just under 2%.
The pound and the yen edged lower, with GBP/USD down 0.13% at 1.6067 and with USD/JPY adding 0.16% to trade at 106.49.
Meanwhile, the Swiss franc held steady with USD/CHF at 0.9432.
The commodity linked dollars were mixed, with AUD/USD edging up 0.16% to 0.8773 and NZD/USD slipping 0.15% to 0.7941, while USD/CAD eased 0.08% to 1.1247.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce reports on building permits and housing starts, as well as a preliminary report on consumer sentiment.