1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar declines on downbeat data

The U.S. dollar decreased against other major currencies on Thursday as economic data from the country were overall negative.

In the week ending April 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims rose 1,000 to 295,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. The latest reading was above market consensus of 286,000.

Sales of new single-family houses in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported Thursday. The reading was 11.4 percent below the revised February rate of 543,000 and well below market consensus of 518, 000.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 0.70 percent at 97.246 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.0825 dollars from 1.0742 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound increased to 1.5057 dollars from 1.5045 dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar went up to 0.7777 dollars from 0. 7772 dollars.

The U.S. dollar bought 119.49 Japanese yen, lower than 119.87 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar slipped to 0.9547 Swiss francs from 0.9696 Swiss francs, and it slipped to 1.2144 Canadian dollars from 1.2227 Canadian dollars. Endite