Investing.com – The dollar was roughly unchanged on Thursday shrugging off a duo of bearish reports on initial jobless claims and manufacturing ahead of a Republican House vote on a massive tax reform bill.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose by 0.03% to 93.75.
House Republicans are prepared to pass a tax overhaul of U.S. tax laws on Thursday, according to various media reports. The vote comes a day after Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said he would oppose the bill.
The dollar rebounded from lows, shaking off data pointing to weakness in manufacturing and the labor market.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial jobless claims increased 10,000 a seasonally adjusted 249,000 for the week ended Nov. 11, missing forecasts of a 4,000 decrease.
Amherst, however, downplayed the unexpected rise in jobless claims, saying that it could reflect seasonal noise as readings from Veterans Day through Presidents Day has historically been noisier than usual due to holidays, weather, and turn-of-the-year churn in the labor market.
Philly Fed manufacturing index for November fell to 22.7 in November from 27.9 in October, undershooting economists’ forecasts for a reading of 25.
EUR/USD fell 0.14% to $1.1774, while EUR/GBP fell 0.34% to 0.8922.
Sterling, meanwhile, added to gains against the dollar after data showed UK October retail sales growth topped expectations.
GBP/USD rose 0.15% to $1.3192.
USD/CAD fell 0.18% to C$1.2740 while USD/JPY was roughly flat as the recent rally in yen faded amid renewed risk sentiment in Asia overnight.