The U.S. dollar index rose against most other currencies in late trading on Thursday, as investors were awaiting for more details about U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff plan.

The U.S. dollar got some support on Thursday after the White House hinted that Canada and Mexico could be exempt from the tariff plan proposed by Trump, who is expected to release more details later on Thursday.

Trump announced last week that the United States planned to impose 25 percent of tariff on steel imports and 10 percent for aluminum.

On the economic front, in the week ending March 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 231,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 210,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

The 4-week moving average was 222,500, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 220,500.

Overseas, the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday decided to keep key interest rates unchanged after the conclusion of its monetary policy meeting.

"The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00 percent, 0.25 percent and -0.4 percent respectively," said an ECB statement.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, increased 0.58 percent at 90.163 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.2307 dollars from 1.2405 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dipped to 1.3803 dollars from 1.3894 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar was down to 0.7792 dollar from 0.7817 dollar.

The U.S. dollar bought 106.23 Japanese yen, higher than 106.08 Japanese yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar increased to 0.9514 Swiss franc from 0.9436 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.2902 Canadian dollars from 1.2927 Canadian dollars.

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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