WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar firmed against most of its major counterparts on Thursday despite seeing some weakness at times during the course of the day's session.
Hopes of tighter monetary policy and steeper interest rate hikes contributed to dollar's strength.
The Fed minutes from the March meeting showed that most policymakers supported one or more 50 basis point rate hikes at future meetings, if inflation pressures remained elevated or intensified.
Fed officials agreed that balance sheet runoff should start from May. The plan involves reducing bond holdings by $95 billion per month and the amounts could be phased in over a period of three months or modestly longer if market conditions warrant.
Data released by the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims in the U.S. dipped to 166,000, in the week ended April 2nd, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level of 171,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 200,000 from the 202,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The dollar index climbed to a fresh two-year high of 99.83, recovering well from a low of 99.40 it touched earlier in the day.
Against Euro, the dollar is trading at $1.0872, firming from $1.0897.
The dollar is trading at $1.3073 against Pound Sterling, down slightly from the previous close.
The dollar is fetching 123.99 yen, about 0.16% more than Wednesday's close of 123.79 yen.
Against the Aussie, the dollar is at 0.7478, firming from 0.7512. The Swiss franc is trading at CHF 0.9343 a dollar, easing from CHF0.9334.
The Loonie is down against the dollar, at C$1.2590, weakening from C$1.2545, as oil prices drifted lower.
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