The dollar is slightly higher against all of its major competitors Thursday. The larger than expected drop in weekly jobless claims has overshadowed disappointing Philly Fed and leading economic index reports. The uncertainty surrounding the future of Greece in the Eurozone has also contributed to the rise in the dollar.
After reporting increases in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the two previous weeks, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims pulled back by more than expected in the week ended February 14th.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 283,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 304,000. Economists had been expecting initial jobless claims to show a somewhat more modest decrease to a level of 290,000.
While the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released a report on Thursday showing continued growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of February, the pace of growth unexpectedly slowed for the third consecutive month.
The report said the diffusion index for current general activity fell to 5.2 in February from 6.3 in January, although a positive reading indicates a continued increase in regional manufacturing activity. The modest decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected the Philly Fed index to climb to a reading of 9.0.
Suggesting a positive short-term outlook, the Conference Board released a report on Thursday showing a modest increase by its index of leading U.S. economic indicators in the month of January. The Conference Board said the leading economic index edged up by 0.2 percent in January following a downwardly revised 0.4 percent increase in December.
Economists had expected the index to rise by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.5 percent advance originally reported for the previous month.
Greece requested a six month extension to repay its debt, but its proposal was rejected by Germany. Germany rejected Greece's application to extend the loan agreement, saying Athens is scheming to get another lifeline without fulfilling all of the terms of its rescue package.
The European Central Bank released the minutes of its monetary policy meetings for the first time on Thursday. The minutes revealed how the deliberations went that led to the approval of the EUR 1.1 trillion quantitative easing in the January session.
"A large majority of voting members" supported the decision to announce the EUR 1.1 trillion scheme that included buying government bonds, the bank said in the minutes of the January 22 rate-setting session.
Further, members also broadly agreed that purchases of sovereign debt appeared to be the only instrument of sufficient scope to provide the necessary monetary stimulus to deliver on the ECB's price stability objective.
"Members broadly shared the assessment that inflation dynamics had continued to be weaker than expected, economic slack had remained sizable and money and credit developments had continued to be subdued, notwithstanding recent more positive monetary developments," the minutes said.
"The Governing Council was thus faced with heightened risks of too prolonged a period of too low inflation."
The dollar rebounded from an early low of $1.1449 against the Euro Thursday, to around $1.3700 this afternoon.
The euro area current account surplus declined to a four-month low in December, the European Central Bank reported Thursday. The current account surplus dropped to EUR 17.8 billion in December from EUR 19.9 billion in November. This level was last seen in August.
French consumer prices declined for the first time since October 2009, the statistical office Insee said Thursday. Consumer prices fell more-than-expected 0.4 percent in January from last year, reversing a 0.1 percent rise in December. Prices were expected to drop 0.3 percent.
This was the first decrease since October 2009 and matched the 0.4 percent drop seen in September 2009.
The buck traded around $1.5465 early Thursday, which was just slightly off of yesterday's intraday low, but has risen to around $1.5420 this afternoon.
U.K. gross mortgage lending declined in January largely reflecting fewer approvals through the second half of last year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported Thursday. Gross mortgage lending declined 14 percent on a monthly basis to GBP 14.3 billion in January. From the same period of last year, it declined by 11 percent.
British manufacturers expect output to grow faster in the coming three months after reporting a pickup in pace in February, according to the Industrial Trends survey from the Confederation of British Industry.
About 26 percent of firms reported an above normal total order books and 16 percent said they were below normal, giving a balance of +10 percent. This was well above the long run average of -16 percent and +6 percent forecast by economists.
The Bank of Japan said that the country's economy has continued to recover moderately in its Monthly Report on Recent Economic and Financial Developments on Thursday.
The bank said that recovery in private consumption remained sluggish in some areas though it repeated that private consumption as a whole has remained resilient against the background of steady improvements in the employment and income situation.
At the same time, the bank upgraded its view on overseas shipments and industrial output and said that exports and production have been picking up after terming in the previous statement that exports had shown signs of picking up while output had bottomed out.
The greenback slipped to an early low of Y118.432 against the Japanese Yen Thursday morning, but has risen to around Y118.960.
Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 1,177.463 billion yen in January, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday, marking an annual improvement of 57.9 percent. The headline figure beat expectations for a shortfall of 1,681.3 billion yen following the 665.2 billion yen deficit in December.
Japan's all industry activity dropped as expected in December, after remaining flat in the previous month, figures from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed Thursday. The all industry activity index fell 0.3 percent month-on-month in December, in line with economists' expectations. It was the first decline in four months.
The leading index for Japan, which measures the future economic activity, increased more than initially estimated in December, final figures from the Cabinet Office showed Thursday. The leading index climbed to 105.6 in December, which was upwardly revised from the preliminary estimate of 105.2. In November, the reading was 103.7.
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Forex News
May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.