During early New York trading on Thursday, the US dollar traded further lower against major rivals after the release of U.S. weekly jobless claims data and the announcements of BoE and ECB rate decisions.
According to a report released by the U.S. Labor Department, the initial jobless claims edged up to 367,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 363,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to climb to 370,000 from the 359,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Earlier today, the Bank of England maintained the size of quantitative easing at GBP 375 billion and the record low interest rate unchanged as expected by economists.
At the end of two-day rate setting meeting on Thursday, the Monetary Policy Committee led by Governor Mervyn King voted to retain the asset purchase programme at GBP 375 billion. The previous change in asset purchases was in July, when it was raised by GBP 50 billion.
The panel also decided to hold the key interest rate at 0.50 percent. The current rate is the lowest since the central bank was established in 1694.
The European Central Bank also announced its interest rate decision in today's late European session and left its benchmark rate unchanged at a record low of 0.75 percent for the third straight month.
At 8:40 am ET, the greenback dropped to more than 2-week lows of 1.2993 against the euro and 0.9330 versus the franc, compared to yesterday's close of 1.2907 and 0.9388, respectively.
Against its British counterpart, the dollar edged down further and fell to a fresh multi-day low of 1.6153 by about 8:40 am ET.
At present, the US currency is worth 1.2987 against the euro, 0.9336 versus the franc, 1.6146 versus the sterling and 78.57 against the yen.
The U.S. factory orders data for August is slated for release at about 10:00 am ET. U.S. Fed will release the minutes from its September 12-13 meeting at 2:00 pm ET.
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