2010.10.2813:47:00UTC+00US Dollar Plunges Further Against Majors

Extending European session downtrend, the US dollar declined further against major opponents during New York trading on Thursday. The greenback dropped to new multi-day lows against the euro, pound, Swiss franc and the Japanese yen.

On the economic front, the U.S. Labor Department reported today that initial jobless claims fell to 434,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 455,000. The decrease surprised economists, who had expected claims to edge up to 458,000 from the 452,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The Labor Department also said that continuing claims fell to 4.356 million in the week ended October 16th from the preceding week's revised level of 4.478 million.

The greenback extended its previous session downward trading against the euro and the Swiss franc in New York morning deals today. At around 11:30 am ET, the greenback slipped to new multi-day lows of 1.3947 against the euro and 0.9820 versus the franc, which maybe compared to yesterday's closing values of 1.3770 and 0.9906, respectively. At present, the dollar is worth 0.9833 versus the franc and 1.3926 against the euro.

Eurozone economic confidence improved to 104.1 in October from 103.2 in September, survey results from the European Commission showed today. The expected reading was 103.5.

Against its British counterpart, the greenback declined further and touched a 10-day low of 1.5980 by about 11:15 am ET. The pair that closed Wednesday's New York session at 1.5770, is now worth 1.5926.

The US currency that closed yesterday's North American session at 81.76 versus the Japanese yen, traded lower and fell to a fresh multi-day low of 80.88 at about 11:30 am ET. As of now, the dollar-yen pair is worth 81.05.

As widely expected, the Bank of Japan today unanimously decided to retain its overnight call rate at 0.0-0.1%. The size of the bank's asset purchase program was also maintained at 5 trillion yen, while the size of its cheap fund supplying operation was kept at 30 trillion yen.

Meanwhile, the central bank lowered its growth forecast for the Japanese economy citing weak global conditions and the strong yen.

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