1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rebounds after Fed statement

The U.S. dollar bounced back against other major currencies on Thursday after it was stricken by a dovish Federal Reserve policy statement in the previous session.

The central bank removed the pledge of remain "patient" about raising interest rates in the statement released after its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. But the Fed Chair Janet Yellen stressed in the following news conference that "just because we removed the word patient from the statement doesn't mean we're going to be impatient."

The Fed also noted that the U.S. economic growth had "moderated somewhat" since January and it said that "an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate remains unlikely at the April meeting."

The U.S. dollar was under pressure on Wednesday as the announcement signaled that the widely expected June rate hike was mostly off the table. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 1.55 percent during the prior session. The greenback pared most of its losses on Thursday with the dollar index up 0.88 percent at 99.415 in late trading.

On the economic front, in the week ending March 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 291,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

In late New York trading, the euro declined to 1.0638 dollars from 1.0744 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound dropped to 1.4714 dollars from 1.4863 dollars. The Australian dollar decreased to 0.7624 dollars from 0.7724 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 120.96 Japanese yen, higher than 120.69 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar edged up to 0.9911 Swiss francs from 0.9887 Swiss francs, and it rose to 1.2738 Canadian dollars from 1.2671 Canadian dollars. Endite