NEW YORK, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The dollar fell against most major currencies on Thursday on U.S. jobless claim data and the outlook of U.K. debt.

    New claims of jobless benefits fell to 631,000 last week from 643,000 of the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department reported. The data was roughly in line with expectations. The four-week average of claims also fell slightly.

    The report showed that deterioration of labor market was slowing. Safety haven demand for the U.S. currency continued falling as investors were more optimistic about a recovery later this year.

    Standard & Poor, a major rating agency, reaffirmed U.K. credit rating at AAA on Thursday but downgraded the credit rating outlook for the country from stable to negative as the U.K. government debt burden could approach 100 percent of GDP.

    Investors worried that U.S. credit rating outlook could face a similar cut as the U.S. Federal Reserve took similar polices such as quantitative easing with the Bank of England. The report triggered a sell-off of U.S. assets and the dollar.

    The euro bought 1.3889 dollars in late New York trading compared with 1.3807 dollars it bought late Wednesday. The pound rose to 1.5896 dollars from 1.5779 dollars.

    The dollar rose to 1.1404 Canadian dollars from 1.1369 Canadiandollars, and fell to 1.0936 Swiss francs from 1.0993 Swiss francs.It fell to 94.23 Japanese yen from 94.89 Japanese yen.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis