U.S. dollar climbs amid economic data

Xinhua
22 May 2020, 01:21 GMT+10

NEW YORK, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar rose in late trading on Thursday as market participants digested a slew of economic data.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.24 percent to 99.3670.

In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.0955 U.S. dollars from 1.0984 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound was up to 1.2235 dollars from 1.2230 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar fell to 0.6564 U.S. dollar from 0.6600 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 107.58 Japanese yen, higher than 107.48 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9701 Swiss franc from 0.9647 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.3947 Canadian dollars from 1.3891 Canadian dollars.

On the data front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, came in at 2.438 million in the week ending May 16, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.

Over the past nine weeks, more than 38 million Americans have filed unemployment insurance claims, as the economy continues to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, U.S. private sector firms reported a slightly slower rate of contraction of activity in May, as the economy began to reopen, London-based global information provider IHS Markit said on Thursday.

The IHS Markit Flash U.S. Composite PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) Output Index posted 36.4 in May, up from 27.0 in April.

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