NEW YORK, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar rose against most other major currencies on Thursday as the country's jobs data came out better than expected.
In the week ending May 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims decreased 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level to 232,000, lower than the market consensus of 240,000, reported the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.
The 4-week moving average was 240,750, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 243,500.
Analysts thought that the better-than-expected jobs data increased the possibility of a June rate hike by the Federal Reserve when they meet on June 13-14.
Market expectations for a June rate hike were around 74 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.41 percent at 97.978 in late trading Thursday.
In late New York trading, the euro fell to 1.1098 dollars from 1.1155 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dipped to 1.2932 dollars from 1.2963 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7417 dollar from 0.7425 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 111.55 Japanese yen, higher than 110.94 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar rose to 0.9806 Swiss franc from 0.9785 Swiss franc, and it moved down to 1.3616 Canadian dollars from 1.3635 Canadian dollars. Enditem
