WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The dollar is rising against all of its major competitors Thursday afternoon. However, the gains are the most pronounced in comparison to the Euro after today's announcement from the European Central Bank threw investors a bit of a curveball.
The European Central Bank surprised markets on Thursday when it announced that bond purchases will be extended till the end of next year, which is longer-than-expected, but its pace will ease after March.
The central bank left its key interest rates unchanged for a sixth consecutive session, which was the final one this year, and retained its asset purchases of EUR 80 billion a month till March next year, but decided to reduce the size beyond that point to EUR 60 billion a month till December 2017.
ECB President Mario Draghi asserted that the option of scaling back bond purchases gradually to zero, or 'tapering', was not discussed by policymakers on Thursday, but said the bank was ready to extend and boost stimulus when needed.
'If, in the meantime, the outlook becomes less favorable, or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment of the path of inflation, the Governing Council intends to increase the programme in terms of size and/or duration,' the bank said in a statement.
Economists had widely expected the bank to extend the asset purchases by six months beyond March 2017, but retain the size of the programme unchanged. They had also said that the bank was unlikely to even mention any scale back of asset purchases, also known as 'tapering', given the heightened political uncertainty.
The dollar initially dropped to a low of $1.0872 against the Euro after the ECB announcement, but has since surged to a 3-session high of $1.0610.
The buck slipped to a low of $1.2704 against the pound sterling Thursday, but has since bounced back to around $1.2575.
Permanent job placements in the U.K. grew at the fastest pace in nine months in November, the Report on Jobs compiled by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and IHS Markit showed Thursday. The number of people placed in permanent jobs rose again in November, with the rate of growth quickening to its sharpest since February.
The greenback has risen to around Y114.060 against the Japanese Yen Thursday afternoon, from an early low of Y113.042.
A measure of peoples' assessment of the Japanese economy increased unexpectedly in November to the strongest level in almost one year, survey figures from the Cabinet Office showed Thursday. The current index of Economy Watchers' survey climbed to 48.6 n November from 46.2 in the previous month. Meanwhile, economists had expected the index to fall to 45.5.
After reporting first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits at a five-month high in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims pulled back in the week ended December 3rd.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 258,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 268,000. The drop in jobless claims matched economist estimates.
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