Dollar Turns In Mixed Performance Against Major Counterparts

(RTTNews) - The U.S. dollar turned in a mixed performance on Thursday with traders shifting their focus to the European Central Bank's interest rate move, and ECB President Christine Lagarde's post meet press conference.

The ECB slowed the pace of its interest rate hikes and indicated that future moves would be based on economic data.

The Governing Council raised key interest rates by 25 basis points, bringing the main refinancing rate to 3.75%, the deposit facility rate to 3.25% and the marginal lending rate to 4%. The move was in line with economists' expectations.

The ECB said it would discontinue the reinvestments under the asset purchase programme, starting in July.

"The Governing Council's future decisions will ensure that the policy rates will be brought to levels sufficiently restrictive to achieve a timely return of inflation to the 2% medium-term target and will be kept at those levels for as long as necessary," the ECB said.

"We are not pausing, it's very clear.....there is more ground to cover," Lagarde said during the post-decision press conference.

Lagarde also revealed that some ECB policymakers had leaned towards a bigger hike of 50 basis points this month, adding that she did not hear any call for a pause.

In U.S. economic news, data released by the Labor Department showed initial jobless claims climbed to 242,000 in the week ended April 29th, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level of 229,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 240,000 from the 230,000 originally reported for the previous week.

A separate report released by the Commerce Department said the U.S. trade deficit shrank to $64.2 billion in March from a revised $70.6 billion in February.

The Labor Department also released another report showing U.S. labor productivity tumbled by much more than expected in the first quarter of 2023, while unit labor costs spiked more than expected.

The dollar index, which climbed to 101.64 after having dropped to 101.13, fell to 101.25 before recovering to 101.42, recording a marginal gain.

Against the Euro, the dollar has firmed to 1.1014 from 1.1065.

The dollar is down slightly against Pound Sterling at 1.2574. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar weakened, fetching 134.27 yen a unit, compared with 134.74 yen on Wednesday.

The dollar is down against the Aussie at 0.6694, and settled flat against Swiss franc at CHF 0.885. The Loonie firmed to 1.3537 a dollar, gaining from around 1.3620.