Investing.com - The dollar extended gains against the other majors currencies on Thursday, after the European Central Bank’s latest policy decision and positive a U.S. jobless claims report.
EUR/USD tumbled 1.26% to 1.0616, pulling away from one-month highs of 1.0873 hit earlier in the day.
The euro weakened broadly after the ECB said at its monthly policy meeting that it would extend its asset purchase program for an additional nine months.
Beyond the program’s scheduled end in March 2017, the central bank said net asset purchases are intended to continue at a monthly pace of €60 billion until the end of December 2017, or beyond, if necessary.
In addition, the ECB left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record-low of zero, in line with forecasts.
In the U.S., the Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 258,000 in the week ending December 2, in line with expectations.
Elsewhere, GBP/USD slid 0.28% to 1.2591, not far from Tuesday’s nine-week highs of 1.2776.
USD/JPY rose 0.34% to 114.16, while USD/CHF jumped 0.95% to 1.0170.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars were lower, with AUD/USD down 0.55% at 0.7438 and with NZD/USD edging down 0.11% to 0.7157.
Earlier Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said the country’s trade deficit widened to A$1.541 billion in October from A$1.272 billion in September. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to A$0.800 billion in October.
At the same time, data showed that China’s imports increased at an annualized rate of 6.7% last month, while exports ticked up 0.1%.
China is Australia’s biggest export partner and New Zealand’s second biggest export partner.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD slipped 0.21% to 1.3208.
Statistics Canada reported that building permits increased by 8.7% in October, confounding expectations for a 0.7% fall.
The commodity-related also found support amid rising oil prices on Thursday, although doubts remained over whether a planned output cut by OPEC will be enough to reduce a global supply glut.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.87% at 101.14, off session lows of 99.50 and at the highest level since December 5.