NEW YORK, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar was mixed against major
currencies on Thursday after European and British central banks left rates
unchanged and U.S. jobless claims fell last week.
The Bank of England kept its key rate unchanged at a record low of 0.5
percent at its monetary policy meeting on Thursday. The bank also decided to
continue its 125 billion pounds (207 billion U.S. dollars) quantitative easing
program while not expanding it. The European Central Bank made similar
decisions, leaving key rate unchanged at a record low of 1 percent and giving no
new policy initiatives.
Both decisions were in line with expectations. Despite current mounting and
widespread signs that the economy could be close to at least temporarily
stabilizing, serious economic and financial obstacles remain to any near-term
return to sustainable growth, analysts of Global Insight said. They expect the
European Central Bank and the Bank of England will stay cautious, keeping their
current rates into 2010.
U.S. initial claims of jobless benefits fell by 4,000 to 621,000 last week,
the Labor Department reported. Continuing jobless benefit claims fell by 15,000
to 6.7 million. Although the loss was slight, it was the first drop since early
January. Continuing jobless benefit claims have been hitting new record highs
every week for four months.
The decline may reflect an improvement in labor market conditions, or it
may reflect the fact that benefits are expiring for some recipients, said
analysts of Nomura.
The dollar is too low given the recovery in the U.S. private-sector
economy, according to a report of UBS AG. Analysts of the financial corporation
said on Thursday that rising yields of U.S. Treasury bonds indicates growth and
inflation will accelerate. They expect the euro will fall to 1.30 dollars in
three months.
The euro bought 1.4178 dollars in late New York trading compared with
1.4134 dollars it bought late Wednesday. The pound fell to 1.6192 dollars from
1.6276 dollars.
The dollar fell to 1.0969 Canadian dollars from 1.1087 Canadian dollars,
and fell to 1.0697 Swiss francs from 1.0713 Swiss francs. It rose to 96.87
Japanese yen from 95.85 Japanese yen.
Special Report:
Global Financial
Crisis
