The dollar was mixed on Thursday, falling further versus its resource-backed Canadian and Australian counterparts while staying near its 1995 low against the yen.
A hectic day on the economic front was headlined by better-than-expected US jobless claims data, which temporarily diffused talk of a double-dip recession.
Even with the OECD trimming its expectations for economic growth in the developed world, riskier currencies like the loonie and aussie rallied on hopes that emerging markets could sustain the global recovery.
The euro failed to launch despite the increased risk appetite, as concerns about Europe's banking sector and sovereign debt continue to weigh.
The dollar held near 1.2700 aginst the euro, having wobbled around that mark for the better part of two months.
Versus the sterling, the buck saw little movement near 1.5450. The Bank of England left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent and maintained the size of the quantitative easing at GBP 200 billion.
The buck held near Y83.90 versus the yen, hovering just above a recent 15-year low of Y83.33.
On the flip side, the dollar continued to move lower against the loonie and aussie. The buck dropped to a 3-week low of C$1.0305 against the loonie, and to a 4-month low of A$0.9276 to the aussie.
In another potential sign of improvement in the beleaguered U.S. labor market, first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell by much more than expected in the week ended September 4th.
The Labor Department said Thursday that initial jobless claims fell to 451,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 478,000. Economists had been expecting jobless claims to edge down to 470,000 from the 472,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With exports rising and imports falling in July, the U.S. trade deficit for the month narrowed by much more than economists had been expecting, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday.
The trade deficit narrowed to $42.8 billion in July from a revised $49.8 billion in June.
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