1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rallies on job data, Fed minutes

The U.S. dollar rose against other major currencies on Thursday as investors were digesting the newly-released jobless claims from the country as well as Federal Reserve minutes for its latest meeting.

In the week ending April 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 281,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level, but below market consensus of 285,000, the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

Fed officials were divided over whether to raise interest rates in June during its March policy meeting, according to the meeting minutes released on Wednesday.

Several officials believed the economic data and outlook were likely to warrant first rate hike at the June meeting, while others held it would be appropriate to begin raising rates later in the year, and a couple of officials suggested economic outlook would likely not call for liftoff until 2016.

Analysts said the arguments among Fed officials kept alive expectations for a benchmark rate hike this year, which supported the greenback on Thursday. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was up 1.23 percent to 99.141 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro decreased to 1.0640 dollars from 1.0799 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound declined to 1.4695 dollars from 1.4885 dollars. The Australian dollar went down to 0.7688 dollars from 0.7704 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 120.68 Japanese yen, higher than 119.99 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar edged up to 0.9787 Swiss francs from 0.9648 Swiss francs, and it climbed to 1.2599 Canadian dollars from 1.2535 Canadian dollars. Endite