Investing.com - The dollar erased losses against the other majors currencies on Thursday, after the European Central Bank said it would extend its asset purchase program for an additional nine months and U.S. jobless claims data came out in line with expectations.
EUR/USD slid 0.43% to 1.0712, pulling away from session highs of 1.0873.
Beyond the ECB asset purchase 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 Department of Labor said initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 258,000 in the week ending December 2, in line with expectations.
Sentiment on the greenback remained fragile ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week.
Elsewhere, GBP/USD added 0.12% to trade at 1.2641, not far from Tuesday’s nine-week highs of 1.2776.
USD/JPY rose 0.26% to 114.06, while USD/CHF gained 0.41% to 1.0117.
The Australian dollar turned lower, with AUD/USD down 0.27% at 0.7460, while NZD/USD held steady at 0.7166.
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, the kiwi found some support after Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler said the ‘trend’ of lower interest rates, asset price appreciation and a high New Zealand dollar 'may finally be turning', encouraging investors to believe that last month’s rate cut may be the last one for some time.
Meanwhile, USD/CAD was little changed at 1.3231.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.43% at 100.73, off session lows of 99.50 and at the highest level since December 5.