1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar falls on mixed data

The U.S. dollar declined against most major currencies on Thursday as economic data from the country came out mixed.

The U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday that in the week ending on Jan. 31, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits rose to 278,000 from 267,000 in the prior week. The latest figure beat market expectation of 290,000.

Investors were awaiting the department's jobs report for January scheduled to release on Friday to get a more comprehensive view of the U.S. labor market.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Commerce Department announced on Thursday that the country's trade deficit jumped to 46.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 6.8 billion U.S. dollars from 39.8 billion U.S. dollars in November. The latest reading was above market consensus of 37.9 billion U.S. dollars.

The greenback deceased against most of its peers during the session. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.42 percent at 93.591 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1472 dollars from 1.1418 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.5332 dollars from 1.5222 dollars. The Australian dollar increased to 0.7804 dollars from 0.7781 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 117.57 Japanese yen, higher than 117.36 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar went down to 0.9229 Swiss francs from 0.9237 Swiss francs, and it slipped to 1.2442 Canadian dollars from 1.2566 Canadian dollars. Endite