Labor, Commerce reports hurt USD

The US dollar saw declines Thursday on new data from the Labor Department and the Commerce department which showed unemployment up last week and durable-goods orders down for the sixth consecutive month in January.

The US Labor Department said that 667,000 put in claims for first-time jobless benefits last week, a gain of 36,000 from the previous week.

New Jersey saw the biggest jump in new claims, while the number of new claims in California declined by 16,550 during the week.

The number of individuals receiving continuing unemployment claims was up to 5.1 million in the US week before last according to the report, the fifth week in a row that continuing claims reached a new record high.

Another 1.4 million individuals continued to get special, extended unemployment compensation, putting the total number of individuals receiving continuing jobless benefits in the US to approximately 6.5 million.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department report showed that durable-goods orders to manufacturers dropped 5.2 percent in January.

In late morning trade in New York, the greenback traded at $1.2763 to the euro and at $1.4372 to the pound, while it took ¥98.385 to buy a dollar.

The Canadian dollar was at C$1.2433 to the US currency, while the yen was lower versus the euro to trade at ¥125.5712 to t he shared currency.

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