1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises to 11-year high against euro

The U.S. dollar rallied against other major currencies on Thursday and climbed to 11-year high against the euro as the European Central Bank (ECB) unveiled a bigger-than-expected quantitative easing (QE) program to stimulate the region's waning economy.

The ECB announced on Thursday to start QE by purchasing public and private securities in a bid to address prolonged low inflation in euro zone.

ECB President Mario Draghi said at a press conference following the bank's policy meeting that "the combined monthly purchases of public and private sector securities will amount to 60 billion euros. They are intended to be carried out until end-September 2016." The size of QE program beat market expectations of a 50- billion-euro monthly purchasing program.

The euro/dollar rate slumped on the announcement and touched 1. 1367 during the session, the lowest level since September 2003. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was up 1.28 percent at 94.097 in late trading.

On the economic front, in the week ending Jan. 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits went down to 307,000 after hitting a seven-month high of 317,000 in the prior week, said the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday.

In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.1378 dollars from 1.1591 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound decreased to 1.5014 dollars from 1.5124 dollars. The Australian dollar fell to 0.8058 dollars from 0.8089 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 118.37 Japanese yen, higher than 117.94 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar went up to 0.8722 Swiss francs from 0.8605 Swiss francs, and it climbed to 1.2367 Canadian dollars from 1.2349 Canadian dollars. Endite