U.S. Dollar Advanced

The U.S. dollar advanced versus the euro and Japanese yen on Thursday after a trio of positive U.S. economic data reports failed to boost equities into positive territory, supporting the greenback. The U.S. currency had been lower in European and Asian trading, a day after Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average pushed back above the 10,000 level for the first time in a year. Benchmark U.S. stock indexes declined in early trading, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average claimed 10,000 for the first time in a year. "Following Wednesday's sharp gains on Wall Street, the equity market may take some profits today, in spite of the better economic data," said analysts at Action Economics. The dollar index (DXY), a measure of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, traded at 75.515, compared to 75.513 Wednesday. It rose as high as 75.765 earlier. The euro bought $1.4913, from $1.4915 in North American trade late Wednesday. In earlier trading, the dollar gained to have the euro buy as little as $1.4862. Rising equities have spelled weakness for the U.S. dollar as investors abandon the former safe haven for riskier assets. Still, some analysts expect the dollar to recover in coming months as the U.S. economy resumes growing. The dollar bought 90.47 Japanese yen, up 1.3% from 89.47 yen on Wednesday. The U.S. dollar bought 1.0303 Canadian dollars, up from C$1.0277 late Wednesday. The dollar index hit a 14-month low on Wednesday and has fallen by around 15% from its 2009 peak as investor's willingness to hold more risky assets have prompted world equities to rally since March. That's also pushed the euro toward the psychologically important $1.50 mark versus the U.S. dollar. The U.S. Labor Department said the number of people filing for state unemployment benefits fell by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 514,000 in the week ending Oct. 10. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected initial claims to fall to about 510,000. "The initial claims data continue to point to a slowdown in the rate of job losses and confirm that the economy is in a recovery," said analysts at RDQ Economics. "However, the level of initial jobless claims is still some 100,000 above the level that we associate with net job creation." The U.S. consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in September. The core CPI -- which excludes volatile food and energy prices -- also increased 0.2% last month. The increases were a tenth of a percentage point higher than expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Also, New York Federal Reserve Bank said manufacturing activity in the New York area improved at the fastest pace in five years. "The first batch of U.S. numbers were unambiguously positive, helping to keep the fire going" in currency markets, Kathy Lien, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading, wrote in an email. The dollar index gave up some of the gains following a report that showed manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's region expanded at a weaker-than expected pace in October. The Philly Fed index declined to 11.5 this month from 14.1 in September. Pound, Aussie dollar Also drawing attention in currency markets, the British pound earlier climbed 1.5% versus the dollar. The pound also jumped versus the euro, sending the shared currency down 1.8%. Paul Fisher, an official with the Bank of England, signaled satisfaction with the impact of the central bank's money-creating quantitative easing program that has weighed on the nation's currency. Analysts said the remarks led to speculation the BOE could pause the program in November. The pound jumped to $1.6236 from $1.5975 late Wednesday. A spate of recent comments from global finance officials concerned about the weakening dollar has failed to lift the greenback as investors bet major central banks won't back up their remarks by buying dollars. Earlier, the Australian dollar rose to a 14-month high after Reserve Bank of Australia Gov. Glenn Stevens reportedly implied in a speech that more interest-rate increases were coming. "If we were prepared to cut rates rapidly, to a very low level, in response to a threat but then were too timid to lessen that stimulus in a timely way when the threat had passed, we would have a bias in our monetary-policy framework," Stevens said, according to Dow Jones Newswires.