Investing.com - The dollar remained near seven-year highs against the yen on Thursday and was broadly stronger against the other major currencies after the release of mixed U.S. economic reports as the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes continued to support.
USD/JPY hit highs of 118.98, the most since August 2007, before pulling back to 118.32, up 0.33% for the day.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending November 15 decreased by 2,000 to 291,000 from the previous week\'s revised total of 293,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 7,000 to 286,000 last week.
A separate report showed that U.S. consumer prices were flat last month, compared to estimates for a decline of 0.1% and following a gain of 0.1% in September.
Core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy costs, increased by 0.2% in October, in line with expectations. Core consumer prices inched up 0.1% in September.
Demand for the dollar continued to be underpinned after the minutes of the Fed's latest meeting indicated that officials believe the economic recovery is strong enough to withstand external threats to growth, but offered little additional clarity about when rates could start to rise.
EUR/USD hit session lows of 1.2504 and was last down 0.23% to 1.2524.
The drop in the euro came after a report showing the euro zone’s services purchasing managers’ index fell to 51.3 this month, while the manufacturing PMI slid to 50.4 from 50.6 in October.
The report said the PMI surveys pointed to economic growth of just 0.1% to 0.2% in the current quarter.
The euro erased gains against the yen following the data, with EUR/JPY trading at 148.12, off the six-year peaks of 149.14 struck earlier in the session.
The pound was almost unchanged against the dollar, with GBP/USD at 1.5688, up from lows of 1.5632.
Sterling found support after data showed that U.K. retail sales rebounded by a stronger than forecast 0.8% in October after a 0.4% drop the previous month.
USD/CHF was up 0.21% to 0.9591, while EUR/CHF was little changed near 26-month lows of 1.2013, not far from the Swiss National Bank’s exchange rate cap of 1.20 per euro.
The Swiss franc has strengthened against the euro in recent sessions ahead of a vote later this month which could force the SNB to increase its gold reserves, a move which could restrict its ability to cap the value of the franc against the euro.
AUD/USD slipped 0.20% to 0.8598, while NZD/USD edged down 0.14% to trade at 0.7840. The commodity linked dollars fell to session lows after data released earlier in the day showed that China’s HSBC manufacturing PMI fell to a six-month low of 50.0 this month, adding to concerns over a slowdown.
Elsewhere, USD/CAD fell 0.11% to at 1.1329 after data showed that Canadian wholesale sales rose 1.8% in September, more than the expected 0.7% gain, after a flat reading in August.
The US dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up 0.22% to 87.89, not far from last week’s more than four-year highs of 88.36.