NEW YORK, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar index increased against other major currencies in late trading on Thursday, as investors digested a batch of economic reports.
In the week ending Aug. 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims decreased 6,000 from the previous week's revised level to 213,000, below market consensus, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
The four-week moving average was 214,250, a decrease of 500 from the previous week's revised average.
In a separate report, the department announced that the Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand was unchanged in July, seasonally adjusted, missing market estimates of a 0.3-percent gain.
"Given the surprise weakness in both the headline PPI and ex-food and energy was due to an outsized drop in trade prices reversing just half the outsized gain in the two months prior, this is not really good news on the inflation front," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 0.47 percent at 95.505 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.1541 dollars from 1.1618 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound fell to 1.2845 dollars from 1.2892 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar dipped to 0.7384 dollar from 0.7438 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 111.02 Japanese yen, higher than 110.97 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar increased to 0.9930 Swiss franc from 0.9929 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.3037 Canadian dollars from 1.3010 Canadian dollars. Enditem
