Dollar mixed as US jobless claims spike, ECB president says Europe’s economy is improving

Dollar mixed on jobless claims, optimism in Europe

NEW YORK — The dollar was mixed Thursday after the U.S. government reported a spike in jobless benefits claims and the European Central Bank’s president said Europe’s economy is doing better than expected.

Jean-Claude Trichet still cautioned that growth would remain “relatively modest.” His comments came as the ECB and Bank of England both left interest rates untouched, as expected.

The euro edged up to $1.3179 in late New York trading from $1.3172 late Wednesday, while the British pound slipped to $1.5878 from $1.5898 and the dollar fell to 85.87 Japanese yen from 86.24 yen.

Also Thursday, European and International Monetary Fund officials said Greece has made considerable progress in dealing with its financial crisis.

Greece came to the brink of defaulting on its mountain of debt in May, and was saved by the first installment of a 110 billion euro, three-year package of rescue loans set up by the IMF and by other European Union countries using the euro currency.

The euro sank to a four-year low of $1.1878 in early June amid worries about the debt crisis in Greece and fears that it could spread to other European countries. The euro has regained ground recently as the market’s focus turned to signals of slowing growth in the United States.

The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment benefits jumped unexpectedly last week. The high unemployment rate in the U.S. remains one of the biggest worries for investors.

In other late trading Thursday, the dollar rose to 1.0173 Canadian dollars from 1.0168 Canadian dollars, but fell to 1.0480 Swiss francs from 1.0523 francs.