Investing.com – The dollar pulled back from four-month highs against a currency basket on Thursday, although some upbeat economic data appeared to convince traders to pare losses near midday.
At 11:57AM ET (15:57GMT), the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell by 0.22% to 92.39, backing away from Wednesday’s highs of 92.66, which was the strongest level since December 28.
That was still off an intraday low of 92.20.
Earlier Thursday morning, weekly initial jobless claims rose less than feared, while continuing jobless claims, which measures the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, dropped to their lowest level since December 1973.
Factory orders also gave an upbeat outlook for the American economy as they rose 1.6% in March, beating the consensus forecast for a 1.3% rise.
To the downside, service sector activity slowed more than expected in April, but still maintained its 99th consecutive month of expansion.
In other pairs with the greenback, the pound traded lower following data showing that activity in the UK service sector picked up slightly last month, but remained subdued. The report added to a recent string of weak data and policymakers’ remarks that convinced investors that the Bank of England will leave interest rates unchanged at its upcoming meeting next week.
GBP/USD was last down 0.06% to 1.3568, far from intraday highs of 1.3630.
The euro was higher but came off the best levels of the day after data showing that inflation in the euro area slowed unexpectedly in April, underlining the case for the European Central Bank’s caution in removing stimulus measures.
EUR/USD was last at 1.1967 after rising as high as 1.2009 earlier.
The dollar slipped lower against the yen, with USD/JPY down 0.71% to 109.06, backing away from the three month high of 110.03 reached on Wednesday.