Dollar weakens against major rivals amid downbeat data

The US dollar weakened against its major rivals in late trading on Thursday as market participants sifted through a slew of downbeat economic data. US manufacturing sector lost further momentum in July, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported. According to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business, the July purchasing managers` index (PMI), which gauges the performance of the manufacturing sector, registered 51.2 per cent, a decrease of 0.5 percentage point from the June reading of 51.7 per cent. The reading fell short of market estimates, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, US initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, stood at 2,15,000 in the week ending July 27, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week`s revised level, the Department of Labor said. Economists polled by MarketWatch estimated new claims would total a seasonally adjusted 210,000.

The lackluster data came after the US Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed`s rate-setting body, trimmed the target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 2 per cent to 2.25 per cent after concluding its two-day policy meeting Wednesday, in line with market expectation.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.14 per cent at 98.3910 in late trading on Thursday.

In late New York trading, the Euro was down to $1.1081 from $1.1085 in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to $1.2146 from $1.2162 in the previous session. The Australian dollar decreased to $0.6804 from $0.6839.

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The dollar bought 107.35 Japanese yen, lower than 108.77 Japanese yen of the previous session. The dollar fell to 0.9901 Swiss franc from 0.9934 Swiss franc, and it rose to 1.3234 Canadian dollars from 1.3197 Canadian dollars.