• The dollar rose to a two-week high on Thursday as a combination of technical trading and strong U.S. economic data and potential weakness in the euro zone weighed down the continental currency.
Analysts said the euro's fall against the dollar below a technically important level around $1.07 triggered orders by traders to sell. The euro fell to $1.0681, its lowest level since March 15.
The move added to the dollar's gains against a basket of major currencies. The dollar index was modestly higher before the euro's selloff, and it rose to 100.52, its highest level since March 16.
• The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six peers, rose almost 0.1 percent to100.47, after hitting Thursday's two-week high of 100.6 again. Despite this week's gains - it is up almost 1.7percent since Monday's four-month low - the greenback is set to end the quarter 1.7 percent lower.
The dollar pulled back about 0.1 percent to 111.78 yen JPY= after Thursday's 0.8 percent jump.
The euro EUR=EBS crawled up 0.1 percent to $1.0686 in an effort to make up some of Thursday's 0.8 percent tumble. The common currency is on track to post a gain of 1 percent for March and 1.6 percent for the quarter.
• U.S. economic growth slowed less than previously reported in the fourth quarter as robust consumer spending provided a boost that was partially offset by the largest gain in imports in two years.
Gross domestic product increased at a 2.1 percent annualized rate instead of the previously reported 1.9 percent pace, the Commerce Department said on Thursday in its third GDP estimate for the period.
The economy grew at a 3.5 percent rate in the third quarter. Despite the upward revision to the fourth quarter, the economy grew only 1.6 percent for all of 2016, its worst performance since 2011, after expanding 2.6percent in 2015.
• The Labor Department on Thursday showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 258,000 for the week ended March 25.
Claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with a healthy labor market for 108 straight weeks. That is the longest stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller.
• Prospects for the U.S. economy have brightened now that fiscal stimulus from Washington appears more likely, so the Federal Reserve will need to keep raising rates and eventually trim its bond portfolio to avoid an overheating, one of the most influential Fed policymakers said on Thursday.
The comments from New York Fed President William Dudley, while sounding some cautious notes, were perhaps his most optimistic in years and reinforced the notion that the core U.S. central bankers are confidently on the road to tighter monetary policy after having hiked interest rates twice in three months.
Dudley, a close ally of Fed Chair Janet Yellen and a permanent voter on policy, had a big hand in setting the stage for the mid-March hike, which brought the key policy rate to a range of 0.75 to 1 percent. Fed forecasts suggest two more hikes are expected this year.
• Oil prices jumped for a third day on Thursday to their highest in three weeks after Kuwait backed an extension of OPEC production cuts to reduce a global glut.
Brent crude oil LCOc1 settled up 54 cents, or about 1 percent, to $52.96 a barrel after hitting $53.10. U.S. crude CLc1 settled up 84 cents, or 1.7 percent, higher at $50.35 a barrel, after touching $50.47.
• The International Energy Agency (IEA) does not expect a major increase in global oil prices despite efforts by OPEC and non- OPEC members to reduce output, its executive director Fatih Birol told Reuters.
Reference: Reuters
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